The Man in Black
by I'veGotAnotherConfessionToMake
Summary: Ah, I'd love to wear a rainbow everyday, and tell the world that everything's ok. But I'll try to carry off a little darkness on my back, 'Till things are brighter, I'm the Man in Black.
1. The Man In Black

Disclaimer-I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters. Those, unfortunately, belong to J.K. Rowling……

Chapter One: The Man In Black

Ah, I'd love to wear a rainbow every day,

And tell the world that everything's OK

But I'll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,

'Till things are brighter, I'm the man in black.

It was dark and damp. A few mice sat in the corner, chewing on the hay that lies there. No light was visible, but for the small sliver that peeked from under a door. The floors and the walls were cobbled like that of a road from long ago. A young girl with matted, bushy hair opened her eyes. She stretched and then relaxed. She had no need to be frightened, she had woken up in this room, lived in the dark, for the past year or so, she couldn't remember how long. For time wasn't important in this place. Survival was.

Survival was the first thing in her mind these days. It was the key to eating and drinking, sleeping and staying awake. It controlled your life and kept hoping for a brighter day.

She had known him since her first day here, the Man in Black. They never said a word to each other, they didn't have to. One look was enough. It kept her sane. Gave her something to wait for. Something to hope for. It was strange, she had never seen his face, heard his voice or seen the manner with which he carried himself with, yet she felt as though she had known him for as long as she could remember. Every time she looked into his silver eyes, she felt that there was something familiar about him. She remembered once, he had touched her face. His hand had felt cold as ice, even threw the glove he wore over his hands. She remembered how hot it had been that day, down in her dark home.

Usually he would bring her food. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, the usual she assumed was given to everyone here. But once when she had lost all hope, he brought her a book and a candle with which to read by. She wondered how he could have ever known that she liked books, but she never asked. It was known between them, prisoner did not speak to master, though she was never treated like a slave.

There was once when the Man in Black opened the door to her cell and just stood there, looking at her. She had stood, her legs trembling beneath her like jelly. She felt light-headed and the light stung at her eyes. Then he moved out of the doorway, gesturing to the corridor outside. To the unknown. She stumbled; she fell, her head knocking the stone doorframe. She could fell the blood trickling down her forehead, but she didn't pay any attention. She stood again, breathing heavily. The light was bright and she could feel the heat on her skin. She smiled, reaching out to touch it, feel it between her fingers.

Suddenly, she woke; the lock on the door was rattling making a loud clanking noise. She moaned and rolled onto her side, back to the door. The hay prickled at her face and arms but she didn't care. The rattling of the door didn't cease nor could she get it out of her head so she could sleep. She turned to say something just as the door was opened. An unfamiliar man stood there with glasses on her face, bushy messed up hair and a scar on his head. In his hands were a wand and a staff. The wand was alight, casting a light into her shadowy home.

"It's you," he breathed. "It's really you."

The man walked into the cell, revealing his features to her. She knew him, it was Harry, her one time best friend.

"I-we-we thought you were dead. We'd given up hope on ever finding you again. Oh, my God. How could I have ever let you out of my sight?" he fell to his knees now, grabbing hold of her body and pulling her close to him in a tight embrace. "My Love."

She said nothing, she didn't know him anymore, she couldn't love him again.

"Come. We must leave now. The Order's here and pretty soon this place's going to blow." Harry grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet, trying to get her from her cell, her home. She attempted to pull away as sounds of pounding and yelling was heard from up above them. Both stopped and stared at the ceiling, one trying to figure out how to help, one trying to escape from the other. The yells and pounding became louder and from a set of stairs to their left emerged the Man in Black.

"Hermione," The Man in Black yelled. He had a wand in his hand and blood was falling to the ground from his arm. Both he and Harry stiffened and drew his wand. She could see those silver eyes widen slightly as if unsure of what to do. They glanced at Hermione and in a moment she knew what she was going to do. As the killing curse left his lips, she lunged at his arm and knocked off his aim as the curse immerged from the wand tip. It ricocheted off the wall and sent pieces of stone flying in all directions. Hermione lifted her arms to her face, shielding her head and a piece came flying towards her. Instead it hit Harry in the head, knocking him to the ground and leaving him unconscious. That was some rock.

Hermione lowered her arms as the Man in Black came to her and taking her arm lead her to a hidden staircase before them. She could hear the people of the Order coming down the stairs and knew that they would be mad at seeing Harry lying on the ground. However, Hermione was weak and couldn't run as well as the Man in Black. She stumbled before she fell, sliding a few feet before the Man in Black realized that she had fallen. He stooped down and picked her up, grasping her small, emaciated body in his large hands, next to his warm body. Hermione breathed heavily and looked around in the darkness, wondering where they could be going. The Man inn Black did not say anything until they had reached a small room, in which he set Hermione down and began to pack things into a rucksack. A set of blankets and a robe then food, the necessities. He then took her hand again and led her out through a door. As soon as they were through though, the door disappeared and Hermione looked before her into a field of flowers and grass.

"How-how did we get here? Where are we?" She asked, confusion written clearly on her face. The Man in Black didn't say anything, just kept moving, pulling Hermione along with him.

Hermione glanced behind them to a enormous mountain, and noticed people flying on broomsticks around the base and middles looking for people escaping. She nudged her companion and pointed to them. She could see his silver eyes widen in alarm and both of them ran for the cover of trees for safety. They slowed little once they had reached the forest and Hermione without shoes began to get cuts on the bottoms of her feet from the rocks hidden beneath the leaves on the forest floor. The Man in Black picked her up and carried her on his shoulder, never slowing his pace. It all happened in one fluid motion.

The Man in Black carried her to a cave, somewhere deep in the depths of the forest and set her down on the rocks. He threw down the rucky and slid down the wall across from her. She could hear him breathing heavily, and wondered why he wore the black hood and robes still though they were outside.

"Who are you?" Hermione asked softly. The Man in Black looked at her, his silver eyes piercing into her own caramel ones and she felt as though she were being read.

"You know who I am. You've known me for a while now, Hermione," he said slowly, reaching down and opening the sack. He pulled out the robe and tossed it at her. "Here. We'll be staying here for the night and I know that it'll get cold. Are you hungry? I have food here for the both of us tonight. Tomorrow we're going to have to go into town and get different things to wear or they'll find us in these clothes."

"'They'?" Hermione asked taking the robe and wrapping it around herself. The cave was already starting to get cold. She couldn't imagine how cold it must be at night. "Who are 'They'?"

"They would be the people who are, were, your friends. They are the people from the Order or whatever it is you people call yourselves." He said, taking food parcels out of the rucksack and lying it before them.

"I'm not apart of the Order," Hermione said. At his surprised glance she continued. "Everyone expected me to join and to fight for what they believed to be right but I just couldn't see the point in killing these people because of what they believed. I couldn't just kill someone because they thought differently than I do."

"But I thought it was for Potter," his voice was full of malice as he said his name. He stood towering over her. "I thought your people killed my family and friends for Potter. That's what it was. Our punishment for being forced into following some crazed lunatic."

"You're a Death Eater?" Hermione asked, looking at him. But to his amazement, she bore no fear in her eyes, just curiosity.

"I was supposed to be, but when all this stuff started to happen, I just kept postponing my induction. You don't understand how hard it was to be apart of a group you wanted no part in. Because you forced to."

Hermione looked at him, recognition in her eyes. But she shook her head and lowered her gaze, choosing instead to look out at the forest beyond the cave entrance. The Man in Black sighed, cursing himself in his head for being so stupid as to reveal himself in such a way.

The Man in Black and Hermione ate in silence, thinking that talking was worse than being quiet. Since they could not light a fire for fear of being discovered, Hermione shivered in her robe until the Man in Black reached out to her and pulled her thin body to him, wrapping his strong arms around her. At first she stiffened, but then as it became clear that he would not be hurting her, she relaxed and let him comfort her. The Man in Black kept watch over her all the night as she slept but didn't dream. Then, he too, fell into a deep sleep just as the moon was rising up over the trees and the birds became quiet in their nests.

Hermione woke the next day to see that it was still dark outside, but she didn't mind, she was used to the dark and preferred it now to daylight. You could see everything you didn't want to in the light. She stretched and sighed still lying down only to realize that the Man in Black was not next to her. She looked around and noticed him at the mouth of the cave. Hermione stood awkwardly and went to stand next to him. When she reached him, he glanced at her and then motioned for her to be silent. Hermione nodded her consent and the Man in Black pointed to a crowd of people just outside their hiding place. They carried torches in their hands and their wands were at the ready. Before them Hermione could make out Harry, talking to them and gesturing to the woods surrounding them. Hermione tried to make out what he was saying to them.

"These people are highly dangerous! They will not stop and think about killing you! They should and will be killed on the spot! Anyone who does not act on this immediately will be punished! Now! On to it!" The mob of people began to leave and the Man in Black grabbed Hermione's arm.

"Are you feeling stronger? We need to leave and we'll never leave in this mass of people. Are you up to apparating again?" he grasped her shoulders and looked deep into her eyes. Hermione nodded her head and the Man in Black took out his wand, wrapped his arm protectively around her waist and he began to turn to the left.

"Hey! I found them!" A woman yelled into the cave and then there were sounds of running and shouting as hundreds of people began to run towards the mouth of the cave. The Man in Black Turned completely and He and Hermione were whisked away and the first killing curse was cast at them. As soon as they landed they broke out into a run. The Man in Black reached out and grasped her hand, pulling her towards a old looking house built into the side of the mountain. He banged on the door and an old woman came and opened the door. She immediately began to scream until the Man in Black put a silencing charm on her and pulled himself and Hermione into the house. The old woman backed herself into the corner and sobbed silent tears as the Man in Black began to look through her house for something. Hermione went to the old woman and tried to bring her comfort, but the woman would have none of it. She was hysterical, throwing things at both of them and trying to get the attention of the neighbors. Hermione grew frightened that someone would hear. She tried to get the old woman to stop, tried threatening her but only succeeded in scaring her even more and causing more damage to be done to the house. The Man in Black turned on the old woman now and pointed his wand at her heart. No words issued from his mouth but as the green jets of light immersed from the wand, Hermione and the woman both knew it was the end. The old woman became still and fell to the ground in a heap. Her old grey eyes unseeing and cold. Hermione began to cry and the Man in Black conjured up a blanket and placed it over the woman.

"It was for the best, Hermione. She would have had us killed."

Hermione looked at the Man in Black and shook her head in disbelief. Here was a man who presumed to be good, that killing others was bad and yet he killed an old woman for his own safety. Hermione didn't really know what to think of him anymore. She felt safe and protected when she was around him, or at least she had, but why would he kill for no reason, without even trying to reason with the old woman. The Man in Black turned now to Hermione and she felt fear creep into her heart for the first time in months. What if he tried to kill her next? She was just as defenseless as the old woman. But just as she felt like she was ok with dying, that maybe it was her time, the Man in Black surprised her and held out a maple wand with weird carvings around the base and handle. Hermione took it and grasped it in her hands. It felt good, to hold the wooden stick in her palm and fingers.

"Let's bury her with a proper burial," The Man in Black said. He levitated the woman's body and took her outside into her garden. He pointed his wand at the earth and muttering some words under his breath, a hole was made, deep in the moist soil. He levitated the woman's body into the hole and covered her up, placing flowers that were around the grave on top of it so nothing really looked conspicuous. Hermione went back into the house and searched for something that had the woman's name on it and found an envelope addressed to Catherine Charles. She hurried outside again and transfigured a rock into a headstone putting her name at the top in curled script.

The Man in Black and Hermione stepped back and looked at the handiwork before turning back into the house. It was getting light outside and the neighborhood was starting to wake. The Man in Black and Hermione went into the living room in the house and put down some pillows and blankets on the floor. They were used to sleeping on the floor and didn't see a sense in getting into the beds. They lay down on the floor next to each other and Hermione, emotionally and physically drained fell into a deep sleep. The Man in Black however was still awake. He watched her sleep and then when her breathing became smooth and steady in a pace that told how deeply asleep she was, he lifted his hood and took it off. His blond pale hair fell out of the hood and his pale skin gleamed in the early sunlight. He looked at Hermione and kissed her cheek before stroking her face and replacing the hood. Then he too fell asleep, his wand under his pillow and his arm around Hermione.


	2. Black Horse and The Cherry Tree

Disclaimer-I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters. Those, unfortunately, belong to J.K. Rowling……

Chapter Two: Big Black Horse and The Cherry Tree

Well my heart knows me better than I know myself  
so I'm gonna let it do all the talking.  
(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)  
I came across a place in the middle of nowhere  
with a big black horse and a cherry tree.  
(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)

Hermione woke the next morning with a sense of happiness and protection. She didn't move, just opened her eyes and looked out at the window across from her. It was then that she noticed the pale arm thrown lazily across her. She turned slowly still in the Man in Black's grasp and faced him. She could she that his eyelids were closed, and wondered how asleep he really was. When his breathing did not change, she moved her hand up to his face and slid it up under his hood. His skin was smooth and as she began to remove his mask her heart began to beat faster, the adrenaline pumping through her veins. Just as she was about to see his face for the first time, Hermione stopped. She realized what she was doing and decided that whenever he was ready to show her who he really was would be the time she would find out. Hermione lay back down on her back and turned her head to the side. The sun was shining bright into the window and she wondered what time it was. Outside there was a bird chirping and a calmness that Hermione had not felt in a long time. The Man in Black stirred next to her, but Hermione kept looking out the window. He removed his arm from her and stretched. Instead of waking though, he turned to his side and continued to sleep. Hermione turned and looked at his back. Above her on the wall she saw a shadow pass by and she stopped moving. The shadow passed by again this time stopping in the window. Hermione could sense them looking in at her and the Man in Black. She could hear the footsteps running away only to be joined by more coming back towards the house. She turned to the Man in Black and shook his arm.

"Wake up! They're here!" Hermione yelled at him. The Man in Black simply slept on and Hermione became worried. The footsteps were growing closer and closer with Hermione getting more and more worried. "Please! You stupid man! Wake up for the love of Merlin!"

The Man in Black stirred and woke just as the people came back to the window. Hermione pulled his arm and tugged him up just as they broke the glass and began to scream curses at the pair. The Man in Black was up and running but not before he was hit with stray pieces of glasses, cutting at his robes and skin. Hermione pulled him away and grabbed both their wands. She grabbed his hand tight and turned to her left, apparating away before the mob of people could try to kill them again.

Hermione and the Man in Black landed in a pasture with some horses. The terrain was rugged and hilly, dotted with sheep and far off in the distance, a tiny village. Hermione and the Man in Black both began to run towards the village, gasping for breath as they reached the village limits. They slowed their pace and pocketed their wands for this was most obviously a muggle village. Hermione began to look into the windows of the cottages and noticed that most of them appeared to be empty. When they reached the town square, the noticed a building that was larger than the rest and decided that that was the town hall. They both headed away from it, opting for a rest area that was farther away from humans. They saw a small grove of trees in the distance and began to jog towards it. The outside was a circle of willows, their long boughs and leaves concealing the inside. Hermione and the Man in Black cautiously entered its shelter and settled in the center, both saying nothing as they plopped on the ground in exasperation.

The Man in Black groaned as he pushed up the sleeve of his robe, revealing a long gash in his forearm and smaller ones all around it. Hermione scooted closer to him and motioned for him to give her his arm. Reluctantly, he let her examine his injuries and watched indifferently as she healed them. It was only when she told him to take off his hood and let her look at the cuts on his face that he drew the line and said that he'd rather not.

"But why?" Hermione asked. "It's not like you're going to be able to find them yourself."

"I'd rather I do them myself, thank you for your help, but please leave me be for a moment." The Man in Black turned away and suddenly Hermione had an idea of who it was.

"Are you scared?"

"Scared? What would I have to be scared of?"

"I don't know. You tell me."

The Man in Black looked at the ground and then looked at Hermione. "I'm scared of rejection. You know me, I told you that. But see the thing is that I love you, Hermione. I can't bear to think that maybe if you knew who I was, you would think me evil and leave me alone."

"Why are you so afraid?" Hermione asked. "You might not know what it is that I think of you. How do you know that as soon as I found out I'd run away from you?"

"Because," He began. "I know that what I've done to you is unforgivable. But you must know, that everything I did for you while you were under my watch were for your good. I did it to make you happy, the only happy person in the entire prison. I love you; I couldn't bear to think of you suffering in that little cell. I know you wondered about it, you had to. Why you? Why were you there? That I can't answer, for I honestly don't know. I was just doing what I was told to do."

"Why did you work so hard for something, Malfoy, if you didn't even think that you could ever have it?" Hermione asked, using the name she had not uttered in at least two years.

"What did you call me?" The Man in Black asked.

"Malfoy. I called you Malfoy." Hermione said. She crawled towards him and reached up to touch his face. She slid her hands up under his hood and touched his skin again. She saw his eyes close at her touch, those silver eyes and she knew then and there that it was Malfoy.

Hermione breathed deep and pulled the mask up and off of his face. The pale hair gleamed in the soft light that surrounded them, but his eyes, those silver eyes, glowed now that they were not shrouded in the black mask. She looked into his eyes and placed the mask on the ground beside them. She reached back up to his face and stroked his cheeks, marveling at their smoothness. She touched his hair and ran her fingers through the surprisingly silky strands. He closed his eyes and just breathed in the smells around him. Hermione smiled down at him even though he couldn't see. She ran her thumb over his bottom lip, which was slightly bigger than the top. Malfoy opened his eyes and looked at Hermione before he reached up and ran his fingers through her golden tendrils. His long, strong fingers grasped her neck and pulled her face down to his. Their noses touched and both relaxed with the other. Both were so lost in the presence of the other, they didn't notice the figure slowly making its way towards them. The figure was that of a man, old, but not decrepit, and someone who just seemed to be curious of who could be here in the willows.

"Hey!"

Hermione and Draco pulled away and stood, both reaching into their pockets for their wands. The man smiled and looked at the wands with a curious expression. "Hey, are you lost or something? Why are you holding sticks?"

It was then that Hermione and Draco both realized that the man was a muggle and had no idea that they were holding wands. They pocketed them, thinking of what they say. Hermione studied the man, taking in his accent and realized that they must be in Scotland.

"Um… well actually sir, we're from England, we just came on vacation, but we seem to have gotten lost from our group. Do you have a telephone that we might be able to use, to contact some of our group members?" Hermione said, grasping Draco's wand hand so he couldn't put a spell on this man.

"Well, there's no phone here. Don't believe in 'em to be honest. Waste of time and money if you ask me. But I know that a couple of towns over, they have a phone. Maybe you can stay the night, eat some good food and rest, then leave once the sun comes up tomorrow?" The man said, he motioned for them to follow. Draco took Hermione's hand and led her to where ever it was that this man was going to be taking them. They walked out of the grove of willows and wandered back down the hill to the village were the man walked to a small house towards the center. He opened the door and called out to his wife that they had some visitors. He then led them to the smallest kitchen known to mankind and offered them to sit down until his wife came and could make them some food.

"By the way, my name's McVey, Charlie McVey." He said.

"Hermione Granger."

"Draco Malfoy."

"That's a strange name."

"So I've heard."

They were interrupted by a stout woman coming into the kitchen followed by a tall, handsome boy with a strong looking build. Hermione and Draco both stood as Mr. McVey introduced his wife, Celia and his son, Derrick. Hermione noticed that Derrick kept on staring at her, but paid him no mind. In fact, it was Draco that had more of a problem with his staring than even Hermione had of the matter. Mrs. McVey asked them if they were hungry and then offered to make them some food when they both replied with a yes. Draco and Hermione sat at the tiny table and ate the bread, cheese and drank the wine set before them. It was a very medieval dinner, but the two were too hungry to notice any different.

The McVey's sat down across from Hermione and Draco, watching them eat and asking them random questions between bites.

"So, what is it that brings you here to our fair village?" Mr. McVey asked. Draco glanced at Hermione who was advently eating her food. Clearing his throat and taking a sip of wine, Draco said, "Actually, we're on our honeymoon. The group we got separated from was the wedding party. Unfortunately, we're not sure of where they're heading to next, and that's why we need the telephone."

Hermione glanced at Draco as he finished his speech and hen looked out across the table at the family before them. Derrick was still staring at her, and when they made eye contact, he licked his lips and adopted a hungry look in his eyes.

"Oh, what a shame," Said Mr. McVey.

"Shame, sir?" Draco asked.

"Yes, shame. You see, my son Derrick is in need of a wife, and when I first laid eyes on your female companion here, my first thought was on how she seemed the perfect match for my son. She looks smart enough and with some training might be a good domestic woman." Mr. McVey stood and walked around the edge of the table towards Hermione. Draco stood, but McVey held up his hand and Draco felt empowered to stop though he didn't want to. McVey leaned down close to Hermione and breathed in the sent of her. He touched her hair, and Hermione pulled away, taking her wand and pointing it at the man's heart. "Do you honestly think that a foolish witch's wand will scare me, child? You have no power over me. I am what it is you people fear. I am related to your Dark Lord, and I have if not more power than he has ever dreamed of having. Put away your stick. It's useless in my presence."

McVey raised his hand and the wand was cast out o her hands and into the fireplace where a fire was started. So much for these people not being wizards. Draco and Hermione moved closer together as McVey and his son advanced on them. Derrick reached out and grabbed Hermione as McVey struck Draco in the face. Draco however was used to these kind of beatings and merely stood there as McVey tried his hardest to get Draco to fall in pain and surrender.

"Draco!" Hermione screamed as Derrick pulled her off and into another part of the house. "Get your hands off of me you freak! Let me go!"

"NO!" Derrick said so forceful that Hermione was temporarily stupefied at the harshness of his voice. "You will be mine, my wife, and my bitch."

Hermione's strength was renewed as Derrick tossed her on the bed and then crawled on top of her, tearing at her clothes and kissing at her bare skin. Draco could hear her screams for help as the elder McVey tried his hardest to beat him into the ground. The wife seemed to have disappeared and Draco with a sudden thought used this to his advantage.

"Oi! McVey! Where's your wife?" Startled by Draco's question, McVey stopped and looked at Draco like he was crazy. Draco took his chance and punched him in the manly addendums and extension, causing McVey to fall to the ground in pain, grasping himself and tears starting to stream down his face. Draco picked himself up off the ground and hurried off into the depths of the house. He could hear Hermione screaming out his name, but he couldn't find her. The house appeared small on the outside but was actually very large once you were inside. Draco pushed open doors and searched the corridor for Hermione, but he couldn't find the correct room. Hermione was sobbing now, he could hear and the younger McVey was groaning. Draco refused to puke the food up onto the floor. He had to find Hermione first. Finally he reached the end of the corridor to the last door which appeared to be locked. He could hear Hermione crying so hard and McVey having his way with her and Malfoy just felt like crying with her. But no, he had to save her. He had to try at least. Draco slammed his body against the door again and again, over and over, but to no prevail. He took a running start and succeeded in knocking the door off of one of the hinges, he tore at the rest of it with his hands, renewed with a sudden adrenaline. The pieces of wood splintered at his touch as he ripped the door apart. Finally, Draco was in the room. McVey ceased his raping of Hermione and looked at Draco in surprise. Draco lunged across the room at him and knocked him off of Hermione, ripping him out of her in the process. Hermione moaned with pain and rolled over onto her side. She began to cry again, though not as hard as before. Draco took the wand on the floor and killed Derrick McVey with a single_ avada kedavra. _He paused and then he noticed that the father had made his way down the hall from the kitchen. The elder McVey yelled a horrible cry and made for Draco. Draco merely raised his wand and killed him too.

Hermione sniffled and shook with her sobs and cries as Draco turned to her, wrapping her in the blanket and taking her away from the room. He carried her into another room and set her on the bed, searching for something for her to wear. He found some underwear which Hermione shrunk to her size and put on with a simple cleaning spell first. Draco laid a robe on the bed next to her and squatted before her. He lowered her blanket revealing a series of cuts and bruises on her color bone and chest. He looked at Hermione who was emotionless and touched her face.

"All I'm going to do is heal your cuts ok?" He said. Hermione looked at him, but didn't say anything. Draco took this as a yes and began to dress her wounds. He conjured up some bandages and water and washed away some of the blood staining her perfect skin. He tried not to stare at her breasts as he washed away the blood around them and then as he cut out a appropriate sized bandage and applied it to her cuts. Once he was finished he helped her into the robe, again trying to not stare as she bent forward and pulled the robe up from the floor around her body. Draco touched her face and kissed her forehead, took her hand and led her away from the house. He le her out to the front yard where an assembly of people were, no doubt they heard Hermione screaming. Draco pulled out his wand again and apparated he and Hermione away, to the surprise of the people around them.


	3. Make Damn Sure

Disclaimer-I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters. Those, unfortunately, belong to J.K. Rowling……

Chapter Three: Make Damn Sure

We're gonna make damn sure  
That you can't ever leave me  
No you won't ever get too far from me  
You won't ever get too far from me  
I'll make damn sure  
That you can't ever leave  
No you won't ever get too far from me  
You won't ever get too far from me

Hermione stood and looked out of the window, down at the grounds of the Hogwarts castle. She smiled and turned away and began to get dressed. Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil were doing their makeup when Hermione made her way to the bathroom. She turned on the shower and then stepped in before undressing and washing away all her dreams. Lately she had been having dreams about Draco Malfoy and the last one had really affected her worse than the last. She would know if she had been raped, but the feeling of her dream was far worse. Hermione felt as though it had actually happened to her.

Turning off the water, she grabbed her fluffy black towel and wrapped it around herself before leaving the shower stall. Call her prude, she had a thing about being naked in front of people, family or not. Hermione placed her toiletries basket back into her trunk and removed a clean set of robes. She dressed quickly and ran a brush through her hair before saying a quick drying spell and straightening it with her wand. She applied some mascara and lip gloss, grabbed her school bag and timetable for the day and walked out of the girls' dormitories, down the stairs into the common room. She smiled and waved at some of the younger years making her way across the room to the portrait hole. Hermione stepped out and said goodbye to the Fat Lady and set off down the corridor to the Great Hall.

The corridors were busy with people going to classes early for help and tutoring and people who, like herself, were making their way to the great hall for breakfast. She looked up and noticed that Draco Malfoy had been looking funnily at her. She looked funny back at him, which took him by surprise, chuckled and went into the Great Hall. She sat down by herself near the center and waited for her friends to come. Eggs, bacon, biscuits with jelly adorned her plate when Harry and Ron came in. Harry sat down next to Hermione and kissed her cheek. Hermione tried to suppress the feeling that she just didn't like Harry anymore and smiled warmly at him as if to prove it to herself. Ron and Harry began to talk about quidditch and it wasn't until Ginny, Lavender and Parvati showed up that Hermione had anyone to really talk to. All the friends ate in good harmony, joked and had a good time till the bell rang signaling that they needed to be heading to their first period lesson.

"What do we have first, Hermione?" Ron asked, sipping is pumpkin juice and grabbing some biscuits in a napkin before taking his bag and swinging it over his shoulder.

"Potions."

"Potions?"

"Potions."

"Why potions?"

"I don't know."

"WHY?"

"Je nais sais pas."

"What?"

"I don't know."

"How could you say something and not know what it means?"

"I do know what it means."

"What does it mean then?"

"I don't know."

"But I thought you just said that you know what it means."

"I do know what it means, Ron!"

"Then what does it mean?"

"I don't know!"

"What-?"

"Je nais sais pas means I don't know, Weasel-Bee."

"Thank you, Malfoy."

"Hermione!"

"What Ronald!"

"Nothing."

"…"

Ron's life was spared for the moment however as Snape opened the door and nearly killed Harry in the process of throwing it against the wall. "That's what you get for leaning against the wall like a lazy bum, Potter!"

Hermione, Harry and Ron all filed in with the rest of class into the potions room. Harry and Ron took their seats up towards the front of the room next to their partners as Hermione sat down in the back next to Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini. The latter two weren't as bad as Hermione had first thought. Usually they talked about their latest conquests and the ones they wished to conquest. It was when they tried to get Hermione in the talk of who would be better for who and why that really perplexed her. But lately, Malfoy had been acting different, and under better judgment, or worse as most would say, Snape had decided to move Blaise up in the front with Lavender Brown.

Malfoy and Hermione had done good ignoring each other except for the random, "that goes there" and "this was goes in last" spiel for potions. But today, Malfoy surprised Hermione by slipping her a note right at the end of class. Malfoy, literally almost ran away, knocking into several people in his pursuit of leaving the potions room. Hermione, confused and really not wanting to read the note pushed it into the depths of bag and promptly forgot about it.

Hermione sat by herself, eating some rice cakes she had nicked from the kitchens in a back corner of the library. She was sitting to were she could see if Madame Pince came, but you couldn't see that she was eating. She was reading an old story by Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice. She was so engrossed in the love story of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth, she didn't even notice when Malfoy came and sat down across from her.

It was silent for what seemed like hours as Malfoy waited for Hermione to notice he was there and Hermione read her love story. Finally, Malfoy cleared his throat, but Hermione kept reading. She pulled a rice cake out of the bag in her lap and munched on it as she scrunched her forehead and continued to read. Malfoy cleared his throat again, a little louder this time. Hermione paused, mid-bite, rice cake in the air on its way to her mouth. She didn't move except for her eyes which had left her book and were now focusing on Malfoy.

"So, I guess you either didn't read my note, or you did and decided not to respond," Malfoy said. He was wringing his hands together, his elbows resting on his knees. His pale blond hair fell just above his eyes, which had turned to the floor when he began to talk. Now he looked up again at Hermione who still had not moved.

"Are you going to say anything?"

Hermione put the rice cake in her mouth and began to chew slowly. She could tell that Malfoy was waiting for her answer and getting very impatient in the process, but she just couldn't remember what note he was talking about. Then it dawned on her. She had stuffed it somewhere in her bag that day in potions and never remembered about it. She looked up at Malfoy who wore an agitated look on his handsome features. Hermione swallowed the food in her mouth and reached down into her bag.

Malfoy watched as Hermione rummaged around in her bag, looking for something. He hoped it was relevant to what they were talking about, more like what he was talking about, because he really wasn't in the mood to play games with Granger.

After a few minutes of searching, Hermione sat up and pulled out a piece of parchment that was worn round the edges. She unfolded it and looked at Malfoys' elegant handwriting. Hermione glanced at Malfoy who had one eyebrow arched and was looking at her as though he gave up with the world, which he probably did. He shook his head and dropped it into his hands.

Taking a chance to read the note, Hermione lowered her eyes and quickly scanned the words he had written almost three months ago.

Granger,

This is going to seem weird, I know that getting a letter from me alone is weird, but the only way I would write you anything is if I thought that it were really important. Surly you of all people would understand that. Anyway, the reason that I'm writing this is that I've been having recurring dreams, always with you. I went to Dumbledore as a last resort and the mad coot told me to come to you. So now I'm telling you that I don't know what to do about it and I guess, I need your help. If you understand and are willing to help me, please write back, most preferable, or I guess you can tell me in person though that would be highly uncomfortable and most unwelcome, but who cares. Whatever makes you happiest, Granger.

Malfoy

Folding the letter again, Hermione looked up at Malfoy to see that now his head was resting on the table and he appeared to be to be asleep. Hermione sighed and reached over to wake him. Just as her hand reached his shoulder however, he woke suddenly and said, "Hermione, make damn sure you never forget me."

"What did you say?" Hermione asked. Her heart began to pound in her chest. It was the same line Hermione heard right before she woke from her dreams. She pulled her hand away from him and sat up in her chair a little taller.

"It's what I always say when I wake up," Malfoy said. He dragged the back of his hand across his mouth and wiped away at the saliva buildup that gathered at the corners of his lips.

"That's the one line I always hear no matter what whenever I wake up from _my_ dreams," Hermione said. She wrinkled her brow in confusion and looked at the floor. "Maybe there is something in our dreams that we have to remember."

"Duh, Granger."

"I'm trying here, Malfoy!"

"Maybe we should both go to Dumbledore's office and see if he'll tell us anything when we're together," Malfoy said. He stood to his feet and Hermione had the sudden urge to kiss him and do other things to him she never would have thought of before. She blushed at the very thought of it and she too stood to her feet.

Malfoy and Hermione gathered their things and both of them left the library together, much to the surprise of Madame Pince and the other students in there. They walked down what appeared to be the most crowded corridor and to top things off, Malfoy instinctively reached for Hermione's hand so they couldn't be separated. Even though they didn't lace fingers or anything of the sort, the touch was enough to send sparks through their bodies and for everyone else around them to notice. They passed Harry and, unfortunately, Ron while they were holding on to each other. Both boys looked confusedly as Hermione, but she just shrugged her shoulders and continued walking.

The stone gargoyle that stood guard in front of Dumbledore's office was a welcomed site. They released the others hand and stood as far apart in front o the gargoyle as possible. Both of them just stood there, staring at the gargoyle and then glancing at each other. Hermione couldn't figure out why she was feeling this way towards Malfoy, and Malfoy didn't understand why he couldn't go down to the Great Hall and feed his stomach.

"Aren't you going to say the password?" Hermione asked.

"Well, why don't you say the password? You're the brains of this operation, though, if I do say so myself, I think mine might actually look a little better than yours," Hermione looked at Malfoy with a you've-got-to-be-kidding-me?-I'm-stuck-with-this-for-company? look . "I've got a point you know."

Hermione just shook her head and said the password. She walked up the staircase ahead of Malfoy, while Malfoy refused the urge to grab her butt. She did have a nice butt. But enough of that.

Hermione and Draco reached the great oak door of Dumbledore's office. Hermione sighed and Draco reached out and knocked on the door. When they were told that it was okay to come inside, Draco opened the door and gestured for Hermione to step through before him. The smell of her perfume ensnared his senses and he was momentarily caught up in the scent of Burberry Brit. Hermione and Draco stood before Dumbledore who was busy looking into a stone bowl with ornate carvings along the sides. He was poking and prodding at the silvery liquid-gas in the bowl, completely ignoring Draco and Hermione and making Hermione feel that it might have been better to have not disturbed the headmaster at this time. Just as she was about to voice her opinion however, Dumbledore looked at Hermione and Draco, and he smiled.

"Lemon drop?" Dumbledore asked, extending his hand to the small bowl on the front of his desk. When both of the teenagers refused he motioned for them to sit and both students plopped down into the wing-backed chairs. Well Draco plopped, Hermione sat while gazing at all the different things on the walls. She had never before been in Dumbledore's office before.

"Now, I understand that both of you would like to understand something about these dreams you've both been having." Hermione and Draco nodded and Dumbledore continued. "I know something of the things that have plagued you both. You came to me, begging me to give you protection, explaining your case and telling me of everything Harry was accusing you of."

"Harry? Professor, I don't understand. Why would Harry accuse me of something? What have I ever done to make him not trust me?" Hermione asked.

"I believe Miss Granger that the answer to that certain question lays in your heart and in your loyalty." Dumbledore replied. Draco looked at Hermione, he had a confused expression, but Hermione refused to look at him. A slight blush was creeping into her cheeks and she started to wring her hands on her dress.

"Now, I believe that there are things in this pensive that will help to explain all your problems to you. These are your memories; you gave them to me the night I sent you back here to this time. You're confused now, but it'll all work out in the end of this ordeal." Dumbledore motioned for both of them to stand. He placed the pensive before them and told them they should just place a finger in watery mist and they would be at their first shared memory.

"Please, do not try to contact the people there, they will not see nor will they hear you. Now, place your fingers in the pensive on the count of three. The effects are immediate."

"Effects?" Hermione and Draco asked at the same time. "What effects?"

But Dumbledore had already counted to three and Draco grabbed her hand and dunked their fists into the mist. Hermione was prepared to be splashed with the water, but was surprised that when she opened her eyes, she wasn't in Professor Dumbledore's office anymore, nor was she wet. Instead she was in a dimly lit corridor, lined with doors, and the one in front of her had her own name on it.

Draco groaned and looked around him. "I thought I was rid of this place."

"You've been here before?" Hermione asked tracing her fingers over her name on the door.

"Hermione, I live here. This is the dungeons of Malfoy Manor." Draco stepped around her and looked at the door I front of them with Hermione's name on it. "I remember I wanted to make damn sure I never forgot you."


	4. Dirty Little Secret

Disclaimer-I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters. Those, unfortunately, belong to J.K. Rowling……

Chapter Four: Dirty Little Secret

I'll keep you my dirty little secret

Dirty little secret, hope that you can keep it

Don't tell anyone or you'll be just another regret

Just another regret, hope that you can keep it

My dirty little secret

Who has to know?

Draco and Hermione stood in the corridor as a group of men in black filed down the stairs and into the dim hall. The men in black each went to a separate door and opened it, carrying the tray of food they had in their hands into the small cell. The man in front of Hermione's door opened it quietly and walked inside a bit. He placed the food on the ground before a different Hermione. He touched her cheek and wiped away her tears. Then he left, as future Hermione touched her cheek and shivered.

The present day Hermione touched her own cheek, feeling the cold sensation left by the man in black. Draco was quiet and unmoving as the man came out of the cell. But as the man in black closed the door he stepped forward and looked deep into his eyes. The man in black removed his hood and wiped at his forehead. He scrunched his brow and then walked away towards the staircase. The image began to fade around them and Hermione and Draco found themselves in the cell now as the future Hermione lay down on the ground. They heard the cell door begin to rattle and Hermione jerk awake. She turned away and tried to fall back to sleep, but the clanging didn't cease. The future Hermione turned on her side to say something as the door was opened and all three of them were blinded by the harsh light. In the doorway stood Harry, Draco and present day Hermione could tell but when Hermione looked at herself on the ground, she wondered if her double knew the same thing. The future Hermione squinted and looked at Harry, who fell to his knees and began to speak to her of his love and how he would let her out of his sight again.

The two teenagers watched as Harry tried to pull Hermione out of the cell and Hermione struggled against him. Then they noticed the sounds coming from above them. Draco and Hermione saw the man in black who was really future Draco emerge from the staircase and both saw his thought process through his eyes, but none were more surprised than present Draco at future Hermione throwing herself at Harry to prevent him from killing future Draco.

When the two future teens began to run away, the present two followed pursuing them down a dim corridor in which both Hermione's tripped and fell and both Draco's helped them up. They watched as they ran into a bedroom and only just barely made it inside when Draco slammed the door behind him and locked it. Present day Hermione and Draco watched as future Draco began to pile things into a rucksack. He destroyed his room looking for things, food and the like. It was when all of his things were packed away that he took Hermione's hand and they were off again. The two present day teens struggled to keep the others in sight as they ran out into another hall and out a hidden door. The present day Draco and Hermione merely fell into the wall and through it out into a meadow. Draco looked around confused at how they got there when they were just inside his manor dungeons but didn't have time to say this as present day Hermione hit his shoulder and pointed to their doubles running away towards a forest towards their left.

Into the forest the four teenagers went and two of them soon found themselves lost. The present day Draco and Hermione stopped, both panting for air, searching the woods around them for any sign of where the others could be.

"If I know anything about myself," Draco started. Hermione scoffed, which Draco ignored. Or tried to ignore. "Well, since it is me who is the one leading you to all these different places; I think that I would know where to go."

"And where would that be, Malfoy?" Hermione asked gesturing to the woods surrounding them.

Malfoy turned and looked at the trees. He licked his finger and tested the air and he shifted some soil with his shoe. Then he marched off in one direction taking Hermione with him who had begun to march off in a different direction.

"Malfoy? Do you even know where it is that you're going?" Hermione asked as they reached the same place for about the third time.

"I could've sworn that it was still here. I know that I used to come here all the time, to escape form having to attend some meeting that Father always had going on in the house for the Dark Lord." Malfoy muttered some more things to himself and finally, after much staring and annoyance from Draco and sighing from Hermione, Malfoy led them both to the side of a mountain with a large rock at the base.

"There, I've found it," Malfoy stated with a happy grin on his face.

"It's a mountain side."

"But not just any old mountain side, this is my mountain side. Malfoy Mountain. Named it myself," Malfoy looked proud and ignorant at having named a mountain after, get this, himself.

Hermione gave him a pathetic look and crossed her arms. Malfoy walked off with a this-is-why-I-don't-waste-my-time-with-you-people-look and climbed behind the rock. He motioned for Hermione over to come with him. They picked their way over the rocks and into a tiny opening just large enough for two people to stand comfortably inside without knocking into each other. The future teenagers were cuddled close together on the cave floor. Draco was awake watching the opening while Hermione slept. The present Hermione took a running stance, ready to charge after her double and mountain freak whenever it was that they were to get up and start moving again. Draco gave her a funny look and Hermione shrugged her shoulders as if to say "What?" Draco sat on the ground and reluctantly Hermione sat next to them.

The moon was big and white as it rose into the starry night sky. The clouds were parted, showing the moon in a sort of spotlight view. Present day Hermione stood and left the sleeping mountain king on the cave floor, to go and stand by the cave entrance. She stared into the sky, watching as the stars blinked and twinkled at you from their imprisoned lives. Hermione tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear and leaned against the wall. Behind her, Draco stirred. He stretched and yawned, looked at the ground next to him and finally at Hermione, who was still at the mouth of the cave.

"God, you're so beautiful," Draco muttered under his breath. He shook his head and pushed the thoughts away. It would never work, it was in his destiny and he knew it.

"Granger? Would you please just sit down? You're blocking the prettiness."

"Get a life, Malfoy." Hermione said as she went back past Draco and to the back of the cave. She slid down the wall and crossed her arms around her, trying to keep warm.

Present day Draco looked over at his double and Hermione, surprised to see that his double was awake and alert. He watched himself as he got up and walked to the cave mouth, not even two minutes later to be attended by Hermione. They looked and then they turned back to the cave and grabbing the rucky, apparated away.

Suddenly, the cave was fading and Hermione and Draco found themselves in an old looking house. The future Hermione and Draco were coming into the house. Hermione had tear streaked eyes and Draco looked perturbed and tired. In silence, the pair ate some food and then settled out onto the floor, talking only to say that sleeping in the beds would be useless. Present day Hermione settled down on the vacant couch and looked about the house. There were pictures adorning the walls and some under glass on the coffee table in front of her. She peered at them and looked at vacations and birthdays of people she didn't even know. Draco was going around the house looking through things. He came into the living room and sat in one of the arm chairs next to the couch.

"Do you remember any of this?" He asked. He held his head up with one of his hands, his eyes were cold and dull.

"Well, no…"

"Then why are we here?" Draco stood and tried to kick at his future self. His foot just merely passed through without affecting his counterpart at all. "What is the point of following myself around?"

Hermione said nothing. She looked up at Malfoy and studied his features. He really wasn't so bad once you looked at him as though you didn't know him.

"Why don't you know anything? I thought you were the smartest witch of our time or something?" Draco muttered under his breath.

And then he started to talk and you realize that he isn't really all that great.

"Maybe there's something hidden here in our memories that we don't know, we can't remember in our dreams or something. I don't know Malfoy. I don't have the answers to everything you know." Hermione shifted in the chair and leaned back on the arm of the chair. "Maybe you should try looking for something useful in this. Lord knows all you've done this entire time is complain."

"No, I haven't. I don't just sit on my ass and complain for people to get me things or for others to do things for me." Draco stepped towards Hermione. She realized he was looking for a fight, but still sat. She wasn't afraid of him. She closed her eyes and said, "Big surprise there."

"Have you ever stopped to think that maybe my life isn't so easy, Hermione? I don't have things handed to me on a silver platter like most people think. I've worked for things that I get in my life!" Draco yelled in her face.

"Oh!" Hermione stood and faced Draco. "And like my life is perfect too? Like maybe the things I do for school aren't because I don't get that at home? I don't get praise. It isn't something you get in the Granger household. I have no friends anymore. Ever since I refused to join the Order and fight for "what's right" I haven't talked to a single person who thinks that I'm really all that trustworthy anymore. My grades are dropping and worst of all this is-"

"Is what?" Draco asked, stepping closer to her. He looked down on her like she were dirt, which was the opposite of what he felt for her. "What's the worst of all your problems?"

Hermione sighed; she sat back down on the sofa. "What do you care Malfoy? After all, all that I am to you is just a filthy little mudblood right?" She looked up at him with hate etched into her eyes. It was when she was mad that he saw how beautiful she was. Her eyes were alight with gold's and ambers around the iris, and at the edges, bursts of green. Something he, and probably nobody else had ever noticed. Her hair became a mass of curls and made her appear along the lines of Medusa, which would have been funny under other circumstances. She bit her lips, staining them red with the flow of blood rushing to surface, though none fell.

Draco turned away and ran his hand through his hair. The year was getting steadily worse, and along with knowing Granger's problems, didn't help his stress level. Hermione sighed and glanced back at her double who was now starting to wake up. Her future self stretched and turned to Draco. She ran her fingertips up under the mask and touched his skin. Across the room, Draco slapped at his cheek with surprise. The present Hermione looked at Draco then back at themselves on the ground. Earlier she had felt when Draco touched her cheek, and now Draco felt it when Hermione touched his future self's cheek. Hermione scrunched her eyebrows together, trying to figure out what was going on here. The future Hermione removed her hands, her eyes sad.

The present Hermione left the room and went outside, Draco, unwelcome, followed.

"One of us should stay in there in case they leave."

"Not that it matters. Somehow we'll get there."

"Malfoy…"

"Granger…"

"…"

"What?"

"I'm really not in the mood for you Malfoy."

"Will you ever be?"

Hermione punched Malfoy's shoulder. He mocked being hurt and Hermione laughed. Malfoy smiled at Hermione and Hermione smiled back. They looked into each others eyes, both feeling something for the other they weren't sure they were supposed to. Draco stepped closer, and then he stopped. His breathing was irregular; Hermione could hear his breaths short and erratic. She stepped closer, till they were mere inches apart and reached up with her hands to touch his face. He bent down to here, his nose touching hers and both had the sense that they had been like this before. Malfoy traced is finger over Hermione's lips and bent down closer to her. Hermione wrapped her arms around Draco's neck and stood up on her tiptoes. Their lips were so close; a breath of wind could barely pass between them.

"I found them!" a woman yelled next to them, startling both of the teens apart. The woman ran away and a mob of people came towards her voice. She turned back once she had reunited with her group and the crowd struggled to reach the window first.

Draco and Hermione ran back inside the house as the future Hermione and Draco were getting up and out of the living room. The future Hermione grabbed their wands and took Draco's hand, apparating out of the room. The people groaned as the present Hermione and Draco were faded away into another memory.


	5. Bad Day

Disclaimer-I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters. Those, unfortunately, belong to J.K. Rowling……

Chapter Five: Bad Day

Where is the moment we need at the most

You kick up the leaves and the magic is lost

They tell me your blue skies fade to grey

They tell me your passion's gone away

And I don't need no carryin' on

You stand in the line just to hit a new low

You're faking a smile with the coffee to go

You tell me your life's been way off line

You're falling to pieces everytime

And I don't need no carryin' on

Cause you had a bad day

You're taking one down

You sing a sad song just to turn it around

You say you don't know

You tell me don't lie

You work at a smile and you go for a ride

You had a bad day

The camera don't lie

You're coming back down and you really don't mind

You had a bad day

You had a bad day

Hermione and Draco were whisked away to a grove of willow trees. They landed in a heap on the ground, Hermione on top of Draco only to be pulled away from kissing by the arrival of their counterparts. The future Hermione and Draco were cautious as they entered, sitting down in the middle where they were sure to be seen. The present Hermione and Draco disentangled themselves and moved away from each other. Hermione watched herself remove Draco's mask and watched as they almost kissed. Draco sat next to the base of one of the willows, looking bored.

The future Draco reached up and touched Hermione's hair, running his fingers through it. The present Hermione could feel the tendrils on her own head being pulled back as though someone were running their finger's through her hair at that particular moment. She turned to Draco who in turn looked at her.

"Do you feel it?" Hermione whispered.

"Yeah," Draco said. He spread apart his fingers as though that would really help and stood shakily to his feet. They looked at their future selves and watched as they touched noses and leaned together to kiss. A shadow passed over the present Hermione. She turned and looked at the stranger, only to realize this man wasn't a stranger. It was Charlie McVey, cousin of the Dark Lord. It was said that he was exiled to some far off land so that the Dark Lord would never feel threatened.

"Draco, don't you recognize him?" Hermione asked pointing to Charlie McVey.

Draco frowned. "No. Should I?"

"Yes, it's the Dark Lord's cousin. Charlie McVey."

"He doesn't have a cousin."

"How do you know that he doesn't have a cousin?"

"How do you know that he _does_ have a cousin?"

"…" Hermione crossed her arms. "Because I read, Malfoy."

Draco opened his mouth to respond when the trio passed by them. The present Hermione could see him holding a wand in his hand, placing it carefully into his pocket in a way that the future teens could not see. He glanced back and smiled. He motioned for them to follow. Hermione and Draco were drawn into his charms like a moth to a flame. They marched behind this strange man towards the village. The present Hermione wondered how her future self couldn't see, couldn't recognize this deranged man for what he was. She followed the others, dragging an ever present and complaining Draco Malfoy on behind her.

They reached a tiny house. It had a garden out front, it appeared to be larger then the house itself, and when they had finally made it inside, Hermione knew it to be true. The house smelt of cottage cheese that had long since gone bad. Draco wrinkled his nose and then placed his thumb and forefinger over his nostrils, plugging them close to block out the smell.

"This is horrible! Don't they have house elves in this place?" Draco looked at Hermione who scowled back and promptly shut up. He didn't feel like really getting into a fight.

Malfoy looked around him as the future Hermione and Draco were brought some food. He felt like he'd been here before, sometime, maybe in a different time, he couldn't remember. Hermione stayed in the kitchen doorway as Draco walked off down the hallway. The doors were lined and oak paneled. There were portraits of family members he guessed on the walls. Some were stately and refined looking, others were threatening and menacing. Then he saw it, the portrait that hung in the attic. His mother had begged his father to keep it, a family heirloom she had said. He remembered that Lucius was pained, torn between his wife and his master. In the end, he had relented and let her keep it, as long as it stayed in the attic where none would think of finding it. The next day it was gone, out of the hallway lined with the Malfoy ancestors and family friends. Draco walked closer to it. He reached up and touched it, feeling the oil paint beneath his finger tips. Hermione walked up behind him and looked at the painting.

"Who is it?" She asked, her as breath silent as the wind.

"It's… Hermione. You're the smart one. Tell me, who was the minister of magic in 1499?" Draco asked. Hermione scrunched her eyes. "Hermione! I thought you were smart!"

"Well I am when people aren't throwing insults at me!" Hermione yelled at him.

They were interrupted by the sound of crashing dishes and yelling. Neither moved. Hermione's breath began to quicken. She knew this scene. She dreamed it. A strong burly looking man with Hermione in his arms dragged her down the hall. The present Hermione felt her heart begin to break as she watched the scene play out in front of her eyes again, but this time it was real. Draco looked at both Hermione's. The future self had tears running down her face and was clawing at her attacker's arm. The present was also beginning to cry, but there was a certain glint in her eye. To Draco it looked like snobbishness, but to Hermione it was her determination. Her determination to succeed. She had watched this play out too many times to watch from behind the sidelines. She followed the man and herself down the hall to the last room. Draco followed afraid of what she could do that might harm them both.

Inside the room there was a bed and nothing else. The man threw Hermione down as the present Hermione walked into the room, Draco close behind. The present girl threw herself at the man but merely fell through him. She was nothing in this world. She began to cry harder as she watched her future self be raped. There was nothing in this damn world that would save her and it hurt. To think that you fight so hard for something good only to have bad things happen to you.

Draco came up behind her and pulled her away and out of the room. It was too much for both of them to watch. Something no one should have to see. He pulled her close and tried to calm her down as they sat in the grimy, dirty hallway. Hermione cried into him and grabbed his shirt, clenching it into a big ball in her fist. Draco rocked her body with his, comforting her and trying to calm her down. Her sobbing however lasted until the future Draco rushed in and killed the man. They passed by the two present teens, Hermione wrapped in a blanket and Draco carrying her. The present Draco kissed her head and whispered affectionately in her ear, pressing his face into her hair. Hermione hiccupped and buried her face into his chest. Her tears ceased, her eyes were red and puffy. He continued to rock her till her hiccups ceased and both were whisked away.

Hogwarts castle was large and at times foreboding, though most would argue that it was home in every way. Hermione and Draco materialized in Professor Dumbledore's office; both were on the floor, Draco holding Hermione. Dumbledore looked knowingly at them that twinkle in his eye. The two teens stood shakily to their feet. Hermione stood close to Draco, she felt more comfortable knowing he was nearby now. Dumbledore was silent. He twiddled his thumbs and scratched his beard. Hermione and Draco moved closer to his desk and with his permission sat down in the chairs facing him. They sat in more silence. Finally, after what seemed like eternity, Dumbledore rose from his chair. He walked around his desk and reached for a bowl on the corner. He stood between them and held the bowl out to them.

"Lemon Drop?"


	6. Not Ready To Make Nice

Disclaimer-I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters. Those, unfortunately, belong to J.K. Rowling……

Chapter 6: Not Ready to Make Nice

Forgive, sounds good.

Forget, don't think I could.

They say time heals everything,

But I'm still waiting.

Professor Dumbledore settled behind his desk, setting aside the unwanted lemon drops and folding his hands together. Hermione and Draco sat before him, tired and weak from lack of food and rest.

"How was your trip?" Dumbledore asked. He sat in his chair and looked from teen to teen, a contemplating look in his eye. Draco and Hermione both looked up at him when this question was asked. Neither of them really knew how to respond. It was confusing for them, to have traveled into the future, into a place they knew nothing about and come back to be asked how the trip was. Dumbledore's one crazy guy.

Hermione sat up a little straighter in her chair and said, "Well, sir, I didn't understand it. Actually, what I didn't understand was the point of going back, when we wouldn't be any smarter about the dreams than when we left."

"Ah! Yes, Miss Granger! Precisely! The point of our dreams and going back is that you both share the dreams! Everything that you've been dreaming has been about your future times together. And simply to show you what your lives will be like in a year or so." Dumbledore leaned forward in his chair, his eyes sparkling. "Miss Granger, it is not the point of things that make us who we are. It is our knowledge of the future, our futures that change the person we are to become. With the knowledge of being in a prison with Mr. Malfoy as your guard is the result of where your loyalties are."

Malfoy looked at Hermione. "Loyalties?"

Hermione said nothing. She sat slumped in her chair now, her brows brought together in what appeared to be anger.

"Professor, it is my loyalties as to what I believe. Harry can kill whoever he wants for whatever reason he has. But I will not kill someone else because a boy who couldn't be killed believes that it's right. Those people believe that what they are doing is right. Who are we to say, "No it's wrong! Change!" We have no authority to boss around someone because we are so differently similar. They are as much the same as us as we are to them." Hermione was breathing heavily. To her anger, Dumbledore smiled, then he stood and walked to a bookshelf. He looked at the titles and then he turned back to the teens.

"Miss Granger, I do believe that what you just said will change history. People not killing others because of what they believe and how different it is to our beliefs." He chuckled and then turned back to the bookshelf, removed a rather large volume that Draco thought amazing he could even lift for being such an old guy, and returned to his desk. "Also, I do not think that anyone has ever shown you this before."

Dumbledore opened the novel and turned to a bookmarked page somewhere near the middle. He took the book and passed it to Hermione who grabbed it with both hands and set it in her lap.

"I want you to read where it is underlined. I believe yours is in silver ink." Dumbledore said, raising his hands to his mouth where he rested his chin against his intertwined fingers.

Hermione looked down at the large volume. There were entries, all handwritten and all in different colors of ink. She scanned the page until she found an entry in silvery ink. She squinted her eyes in order to read the small print easier and silently read the words.

In the early years of a great war, a child will be born of muggle heritage. She will mother the child of a pureblood who is the hidden thorn on a rose. Together they will defeat the Dark Lord and bring new life to the people, unless the child created is killed.

It ended there, nothing else was written in the silvery ink. Hermione looked up at Professor Dumbledore. "Professor, I still don't understand… What does this have to do with me?"

The old professor leaned forward; hands still clasped together and rested his elbows on the desk. "I believe Miss Granger that this prophecy has to do with you…"

Hermione raised her eyebrows, waiting for it…

"…and Mr. Malfoy." Dumbledore, finished with what he was saying, looked at Hermione and Draco, the latter of whom had a disguststed look on his handsome features. Hermione looked placid, totally unreadable. "Are you okay with that Miss Granger?" Hermione sat with her eyes looking at Dumbledore. Her expression had changed from that of cool and collected to a you've-got-to-be-kidding-me-first-memories-and-now-a-kid-with-Malfoy!look that said "I really don't believe you, Dumbledore," Hermione said, disbelief in every word she said.

"I kid you not Miss Granger."

"How do you really know that it's about me and Malfoy, huh?"

"Are you questioning me?"

"Yes, I think I am…"

"I wrote the prophecy, Miss Granger."

"…"

"Smart move, Granger."

"Shut it Malfoy!"

"I have the feeling that you still don't believe me, Miss Granger?"

"I don't understand just how in the world you know _everything_…"

"Well, Miss Granger… I uh…."

"Yes… Professor?"

Dumbledore shifted in his chair and said "Lemon Drop?"

Hermione smirked and then shook her head as though to say I told you so and settled back into her chair as Draco looked at her with new eyes.

"Okay! I have a question for you!" Hermione said, suddenly excited. "If Draco and I were to," here she shuddered. "make a child, then what does that have to do with Voldemort and Harry?"

"Well," Dumbledore said, removing his glasses and polishing them on his turquoise robes. "The child you would create would have more power than any other simply because of the fact of who you are."

"Who we are?" Malfoy asked.

"Yes. You Mr. Malfoy being a pureblood, and one so thoroughly against muggle borns, and Miss Granger being a muggle born, who is one of Mr. Potter's friends, would help you create a child strong enough to defeat the Dark Lord, should Harry fail." Dumbledore looked away from the teens and raised his shoulders slightly. "I think that time will show you the answers to the questions you have bubbling up inside of you. I do not hold all the answers."

Draco scoffed and looked to the ceiling. He crossed his arms over his chest and pouted. Hermione glanced at him and scowled. Couldn't fate have at least chosen someone who didn't grimace and complain at EVERYTHING! The old professor slanted his eyes and watched his two students. It was obvious that they didn't like each other, but there was really no trace of hate. After all, love and hate are so intermingled; it's hard to decipher one from the other at times, if even at all. Dumbledore was no stranger to love. He had had love in his hands at one point, but had set it free in an attempt to save all those he loved from what could've been tragic deaths.

"All right, I think that it's time that you two were to be heading off to your dormitories for a bit of rest and relaxation. I'm sure that the both of you desperately need it." Dumbledore stood and ushered out the teens, careful to close the door behind them before turning and settling back into his chair. He looked out at the grounds; he whistled and in through the window soared Fawkes, his phoenix who landed on the arm of the chair. Dumbledore stroked the fiery red plumes and feathers and whistled a sad lonely tune, one that only he knew.

Draco and Hermione separated at the entrance hall and went their separate ways, Hermione to the Head Girl's room and Draco down the steps to the dungeons. They were so far apart in every aspect but both couldn't help but to realize that maybe there was something there between them that's compatible. Something that could one day help them to fall in love. Draco continued on down the dank steps into the dark corridors. He passed by a portrait of Salazar Slytherin. Draco paused and looked upon the face of the founder of his house. There was so much malice on every feature of the man's face, but for his eyes. They hid something in their silvery depths, something that only Slytherin only knew. Draco continued on his way, shaking his head. How could there be something other than hate in Slytherin's eyes? Wasn't he known for being a malicious man who just as soon as kill you then even look at you? Draco couldn't tell, no one really could. He said the password to a surly looking portrait a man in black robes from head to foot that reminded everyone in Slytherin house of the Death Eater that they were most likely to become and stepped into the common room. It was empty, save for Parkinson and Zabini, both of whom were sitting on opposite ends of the couch. Draco passed by them just as Zabini turned to see who it was that had come in. He was quiet, he didn't say anything to Draco, but instead swiveled back around to the front and looked deep into the fire.

Upstairs in his room, Draco removed his school uniform and was just about to throw them on the bed when a parcel caught his eye. It was wrapped in brown paper, tied with twine and it was sitting just on the end of his bed, where he was sure to find it. There was no letter, nothing written anywhere on it and Draco was immediately on guard. You never knew these days who would be sending you poisons and things of that matter to you through the mail. Draco eased it up and was surprised by its weight. His curiosity got the better of him and Draco ripped open the parcel and let the contents fall to the ground. First, he stared at it in disbelief than he began to get angry. He knew he would never forgive his father or the dark lord for sending this to him.

A black cloak and mask lie on the floor with a simple piece of parchment barely an inch long. Draco picked it up read it and then tossed it away again. It floated down to the floor with a certain grace and landed face up, staring back at Draco. The bloody words said only one thing of any importance.

Bring the Mudblood. Use this cloak and mask as your disguise. You will further be known as The Man in Black.


	7. All At Once

Disclaimer-I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters. Those, unfortunately, belong to J.K. Rowling……

Chapter Seven: All At Once

There are certain people you just keep coming back to  
She is right in front of you  
You begin to wonder could you find a better one  
Compared to her now she's in question

And all at once the crowd begins to sing  
Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same

It seems at times that the little things, the non-trivial things, in your life are the ones that wreck your life and bring chaos into your perfect setting. It's when the world goes on as though nothing bad could ever happen, nothing could be amiss and yet to yourself, you question how those around you could not see it. How they can feel the same as you, why must things be so perfect for them while your own life is havoc, dispersed between all your emotions.

November was fast approaching, encroaching itself into the air, turning the warm sunny days into colder, windier days. The leaves turned reds and golds, then brown and fell, in swirling patterns until they reached the ground to be crushed under the boot of passerby. Life was so fragile, impossible to predict and yet so easy at times to read. You know what you want, but it's not always the thing that you get. For Draco Malfoy life was against him, and nothing in his power could stop it. He had hid the cloak and mask at first in his trunk, buried at the very bottom and then in the bottom of his wardrobe behind all his school textbooks. And now he sat in his room, alone. He was dressed in solid black, and holding the cloak and mask in his hands. He knew what he had to do, he knew what he should do, and that was to warn Hermione and then run for it and save his life and maybe hers. But Draco knew that he wouldn't do that. He was peace-maker in his family, not one to upset the balance of things. How could they order him to take one of his class mates though? Did they think that it would easier if maybe it was the Mudblood? Draco shook his head and raised the cloak in his hands in front of him. He stood and laid them on the bed. Draco raised a hand to his eyes and rubbed at them, willing the sleep to go away. He stretched and then he reached forward, picked up the clothing and put it on. The cloak was heavy and made of wool. The mask was simply a piece of black cloth with two holes for eyes. He took his wand from the bedside table and went to the window. It was night, the sun has just set and people were sitting around the lake, talking and laughing with their friends. Draco sighed and left his chambers. He wandered down the steps, slowing as he reached the common room before slipping into the shadows and exiting, without the knowledge of his classmates.

Corridors were empty; it was easy to wander down the halls in silence, never having to worry about being caught. Draco passed by the portrait of the Fat Lady and moved on towards the head girls' dormitories. He stepped up to the portrait of a young boy with silvery hair and bright brown eyes. He smiled and stepped up closer to Draco. Draco removed his mask and looked up at the small child.

"What is your name?" Draco asked. He marveled at the likeness of himself, and dare he say it, Hermione in the child.

"I tell no secrets,

I tell no lies.

I have no name

For I am not yet alive."

The boy chuckled and turned back into the portrait, playing with a toy truck. He made horn noises and scooted the toy across the rug, rolling over the creases and sending the truck flying into the air.

Draco stared at the boy. Not yet alive? How could that be?

"How are you alive in the portrait? Do you know who your parents are?" Draco asked, stepping closer. He gazed into the boys eyes, the ambers and browns mixing together to form a starburst of colors. The boy shook his head yes, he did know his parents, but he continued to play as though Draco had not even acknowledged him. "Who are they?"

"I tell you no secrets." The boy repeated. He stood and pointed to a picture within his portrait. It said something, something foreign it looked like. Maybe it was French, Draco couldn't really tell. Draco leaned it till his nose was almost touching the oil paint. It was rose, with an 'M' in its embrace.

"Rose?" The little boy smiled, revealing two front teeth and a missing third before the portrait swung open. Draco replaced his mask and stepped cautiously, careful to not make any noise. He could hear the water running in the bathroom, singing was drifting out with the steam through the open door. Draco stepped up three smaller stairs and opened the door wider. The steam poured out on him, making him sweat in his wool cloak.

Hermione hummed the ending of the muggle song she had been singing, rinsing out her hair, her eyes closed. She turned slightly when she thought she heard the door creak, but then realized that it couldn't have moved. No one could get in here without the password or herself letting them in. Hermione turned off the facet and reached around the curtain for one of her fluffy red towels. She wrapped one around her body and then stepped out, facing the opposite of the door. She rung out her hair and grabbed her brush. She had just started to brush it when she looked into the mirror, and saw him. She was about to scream when the man put a silencing charm on her. He stepped close to her and touched her cheek. "It's only for a little while. I won't let them do anything to you Hermione, I promise."

Tears streamed down her face as Draco tossed some clothes at her and told her to get dressed. He was impatient suddenly, and Hermione felt like slowing down so as to make him mad. He simply watched her; she could feel his eyes on her. She turned her back to him and placed her shirt over her head and then her bottoms. She turned to see the man reaching for a locket lying on the counter.

"No! Please, do not touch that! It's very important to me." Hermione made for it, but the man grabbed it anyways. He held it in his grasp and very seriously said "If you take it with you, they will steal it."

"They? Who are they? Who are you?" Hermione said lunging for the necklace and missing. The man had great reflexes and Hermione had an idea of who it was. His posture and voice just fit everything about Malfoy. She stood, breathing slightly heavier than before and smoothed her wet locks out of her face. "Ok, I know who you are. And I-…"

Hermione stopped. She began to cry again suddenly, never realizing that she had stopped before. It couldn't be. No, it couldn't be everything that Dumbledore had warned her about. Hermione fell to her knees, looking up at him. He knelt before her and again touched her cheek.

"Why?"

"It's the choices that we have to make sometimes, Hermione that make us who we are. I never wanted to be this. Please find it in your heart to someday forgive me?" The man raised his wand and Hermione's eyes stayed on him as he stood before her, looking down on her. She bit her lip, and closed her eyes tight. There was no way out of this.

"Wait!" Hermione said as a spell was started on the man's lips. "May I at least know what it is you look like?" She could see his silvery eyes close slightly as though he was thinking about whether this was good enough or not.

"On one condition."

"What?"

"You must promise me that you will not say a word." Hermione nodded her consent and Draco removed his mask. Hermione gasped and then began to cry harder. Yet, she could not take her eyes off of him. He looked so young and helpless, like this was something completely out of his will. Draco raised the wand and said "Please, forgive me. I never meant to hurt anyone."

The spell was off of his lips before she knew what was going on. She hit the ground backwards, her hair spilling across the rug. Draco replaced his hood and moved closer to her. Her eyes were blank, but she was alive. He had only knocked her out. Draco put his wand tip to her temple and extracted a memory. It was silvery and not quite gas nor liquid. He placed it in a bottle on the counter and put the bottle into his pocket. Draco knew he would let her see it later.

Draco bent down and picked up Hermione, cradling her in his arms. She was dead weight, but extremely light. Draco walked out of the bathroom and into the common room. He transfigured an ornament into a portkey. He placed his finger on the tiny figurine of a milk maid and they were whisked away, left behind them was only the scent of Hermione's shampoo and Draco's cologne. He left no evidence, no way for anyone to ever find her, for that was his goal. To keep Hermione Granger until the end of her days, forever with him.


	8. Savin' Me

Disclaimer-I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters. Those, unfortunately, belong to J.K. Rowling……

Chapter Eight: Savin' Me

Prison gates won't open up for me  
On these hands and knees I'm crawlin'  
Oh, I reach for you  
Well I'm terrified of these four walls  
These iron bars can't hold my soul in  
All I need is you  
Come please I'm callin'  
And oh I scream for you  
Hurry I'm fallin'

Show me what it's like  
To be the last one standing  
And teach me wrong from right  
And I'll show you what I can be  
Say it for me  
Say it to me  
And I'll leave this life behind me  
Say it if it's worth saving me

Hermione groaned, her head was pounding and she couldn't remember anything about the previous night. She shook her head slightly and opened her eyes. She stifled a soft scream. The walls around her were cobbled stone, grey and foreboding. Hermione began to cry as she stood, shakily to her feet and ran her fingers over the stones. Her fingers found the door and searched for a handle, a doorknob anything that could help her escape this, this, prison…

There was nothing, nothing on her side at least. Hermione fell to her knees. Her body ached from all the silent tears draining from her soul. Where was she? Why was she here? Who would want to do this to her? And then it came to her. The Death Eaters and the Dark Lord would most certainly want all the mudbloods and muggles locked up, so they couldn't "pollute" the earth anymore. Hermione pulled her knees up to her chest and rocked back and forth. She pushed her bushy hair out of her face and pressed her eyes into her knees, willing herself to stop crying.

The lock on the door suddenly began to rattle and shake. It opened and Hermione was temporarily blinded as a person came in and closed the door behind them. Hermione scuttled to a corner that was full of hay. A couple a mice sat in the corner, unfazed by her presence. The person stepped closer to her and Hermione saw that it was wearing all black with a black mask. The Death Eaters, Hermione was sure of it. There was no one else it could possibly be that would want her locked up. He placed a tray of food in front of her and then backed up. It was full of meats and rice with green beans and a hot roll. Steam rose off of the food; Hermione's mouth began to water and she longed to go over and eat it.

"Please, eat. It's my fault you're in here. All I want is for you to at least stay healthy." The voice said. A man's voice. Hermione scooted over and pulled the tray closer to herself and farther away from the man. She grabbed the roll and smelled it. It smelt okay. She took a bite and chewed slowly. It tasted ok too. Hermione stuffed the roll into her mouth. If she was going to die at least she'd die with a full stomach. Hermione then reached for the meats, stuffing it into her mouth before she had really finished chewing the roll. The food felt like heaven in her stomach. Hermione temporarily forgot about the man still in her cell. She looked up to see him still standing there and stopped eating. His silvery eyes gazed down on her with what looked like pity. He waited until she appeared finished and then he gathered up the tray and food, turned and walked out of the cell without another word. The heavy clanging of the door and lock was like a death sentence to Hermione. She cuddled up in the hay and closed her eyes. What could she do in this place? She wished that the man could have told her something. But then again, she'd never even asked about it had she?

Sleep overtook Hermione. She laid her head in the hay and brought her knees up to her chest. She closed her eyes and sang softly a slow sad song that only she knew the words to.

Draco leaned back against Hermione's cell door and breathed heavily. He removed his mask. If his father ever found out that he had just given her a full course meal, Draco would be dead, that much was for certain. He left the corridor and walked down to the kitchens. It had been a crazy couple of days, waiting for Hermione to wake up. She had been knocked out for the better part of two days and probably didn't even know it. She had no right to be taken out of her home, her comfort place, and yet he, Draco Malfoy, had done it. It made everything worse that it was his entire fault she was soon to be killed. It was made clear upon their arrival that the Dark Lord knew of her prophecy. He had smiled maliciously and slouched in his throne like chair. Draco had held Hermione in his arms, her head hanging down towards the ground. The Dark Lord came closer to her and touched her forehead. Hermione shifted but stayed asleep. Draco inwardly shuddered, for he knew the hands of Voldemort had a cold and lifeless feeling to them.

In the kitchens, Draco had a momentary pause from Hermione. He couldn't understand why he couldn't stop thinking about her anyways. She was a mudblood, and he, one of the greatest purebloods the wizarding world had to offer. Draco placed the tray on the counter and was about to leave for his dormitories when his father walked in. Lucius Malfoy's presence was immediately known, not for his silvery locks or expensive clothes, but for his demeanor. He had a grace that Draco couldn't understand that a man so full of hatred could possess.

"Ah, Draco." Malfoy Senior said, raising his walking stick into the air and coming towards him. "I would like to have a word with you. Follow me."

With that Draco and Malfoy Sr. walked out into the hall full of cells. They stopped before Hermione's and Draco felt sick at the stomach.

"I believe that you know why you have been asked to bring the mudblood here?" Malfoy Sr. asked, gesturing towards the door with one of his gloved hands. Draco shook his head no and then replied with "I thought I was to bring her here because the Dark Lord wants there to be no more mudbloods in the world."

'That is what he wanted you to believe so that you would actually bring her here." Malfoy Sr.'s eyes glittered maliciously and he placed his walking stick on the ground, leaning on it slightly. "There is a prophecy, one of great importance to our well being and the Dark Lord."

Draco feigned stupidity as his father proceeded to tell him what he knew. "Well apparently, there is a child to be born of the mudblood that is capable of defeating the Dark Lord. That is where you come in. It is your child with the mudblood that will have the power to defeat the Dark Lord. I'm sorry you have to…do it with the mudblood, but it's for your master. No get along with wooing her and get that baby started. Your master commands it."

With that Lucius Malfoy stalked off down the hallway. Draco leaned back against the wall for the second time. He closed his eyes and reached up with his fingers to push some stray hairs out of his face. Straightening, Draco pushed away all thoughts of ever even liking Hermione and pulled into its place the one thought that plagued him. He'd have to do something to make her with child…. There's really only one way to do that…

"God, what am I thinking?" Draco pushed off of the wall and followed in his fathers wake down the hallway. He paused at the staircase and listened. There, he'd heard it again. It was the sound of someone sobbing… while this had never bothered him before he realized that it could be the person he had forced here. It made him cringe at the thought of being the exact opposite of what he'd always wanted to never be, but what could he do?

The sobs got louder and Draco, unable to stand it any longer continued up the stairs. He traced his way down another hallway to a marbled staircase. He stepped lightly up the smooth marble and made his way into an expensive looking corridor. This was the part of Malfoy Mansion that made Draco feel like maybe it was good to be rich, clothed in luxury…

Then again, this was also the part of Malfoy Mansion that also made him sick to his stomach. How often had he seen his father holding meetings here and the like? How often had he heard the screams of the tortured souls that dwelled down below? His mother did just fine in this place. She combed her hair and smoothed her dress and jewelry, but what was it for? Why did they refine themselves to be such great people when really they were as low as the dirt they fed to the people they said were below them? Draco opened the door to his chambers as his mother emerged from her room. They stopped and looked at each other, both mother and son, and yet, they weren't. She had never showed affection for him, and he, he didn't know if he was supposed to. She looked at him, her deep set eyes boring into his and he had the sudden feeling of fear. That maybe he should be afraid. She glanced at the staircase and then back at him. Draco followed her gaze and looked at the stairs; there were shadows encroaching on the walls, making their way closer. He looked back to his mother; she was gone, melted into the darkness that was her home.

Pushing open the door, Draco stepped into his room and closed the door softly. He removed his heavy cloak and placed it and his mask on the chair by the wardrobe. He walked to his bathroom and started the bath. Usually he showered, but today he felt like relaxing. The steam began to fill the room as Draco went and stood before the mirror. His clothes soon became damp with all the steam, his hair plastered to his head. Draco took off his shirt and studied himself. He was built, but he was lanky and thin. There was nothing special about him, that much was certain. He turned away and fully undressed. He stepped into the bath and eased himself into a sitting position, relaxing into the warm water.

It was silent in the bathroom as Draco rested his head against the side of the tub and closed his eyes. He rested his arms on the side of the bath and slowly opened his eyes. He exhaled as thoughts of Hermione came back into his head. He just couldn't seem to get her away from his mind. Sure she had blossomed, and sure she was smart, but she was just Hermione…

"Well, that just sounds stupid…" Draco said taking the bar of soap and tossing it into the air. He caught it and then threw it with the other hand. It slipped and slid across the floor towards the door. He sighed and stood, the water cascading off his body. He grabbed a towel, stepping out of the bathtub. He was just about to bend down to get the soap when the door was thrown open. It struck him in the head; Draco fell backwards on his bum. It was his father. Draco rubbed his head and stood again, readjusting his towel.

"I've brought her to you."

"You've what?" Draco said grabbing the soap and standing up again. He tossed it towards the tub but it hit the side instead and bounced off, skating threw the air where it hit the neighbouring toilet and landed with a soft thud on the floor. Draco shook his head and slumped his shoulders.

"I've brought you the mudblood. You are to start tonight." Malfoy Sr. said, turning on his heel and walking back into Draco's room. Draco, who didn't quite believe what he'd heard followed to see Hermione sitting on his bed, gagged and tied, tears rolling down her apple cheeks.

Immediately, Draco felt sympathetic, but then his father began to speak.

"Look at her son. She's lowly, dirt, no better than the ground you step on." Malfoy whispered the words into his son's ear, slowly moving behind him, though his eyes never left Hermione. Draco's heart began to harden; he was becoming the Draco Malfoy he had always used to be. "It won't take but a second, but make it the worst that she's ever had. Torture her, son; make her pay for all the filth she's brought into the world. It's the people like her that made us go into hiding."

Lucius Malfoy moved away from Draco and walked up to Hermione, who closed her eyes and sobbed. Draco felt no compassion. He felt hardened, different, and he liked it, this new found feeling. Hermione hung her head low as Lucius pushed her; she fell sideways and suddenly became alert. Her hands were tied behind her back. Lucius rolled her over onto her back and spread her legs. Hermione cried as he assaulted her.

"There, she's ready son." Lucius moved away from her and adjusted his clothes. He smoothed out his hair and picked up his discarded walking stick. He sneered at Draco and left the room. Draco smirked and moved up to Hermione. Her eyes were open, yet she stared at the ceiling. Draco touched her; Hermione screamed inside herself. She longed for her cell, for anything other than this place.

It was over before she knew it, but he stayed inside of her, looking down at her. She looked into his eyes and realized how much they changed with each passing second. They turned from stone cold grey, to a sort of cloudy grey. The irises were dilated, but they began to shrink as his eyes became silvery with tinges of blue.

Hermione moved trying to get him out of her, off of her when he snapped. He jumped off of her and stood. He looked at himself and then at her and scrunched his brows. "How…?" Draco mumbled. He picked up his towel and replaced it around his waist. Draco looked at Hermione, who had closed her legs and was now struggling against the bonds around her wrists. Draco glanced around the room for his wand and found it lying on the bedside table. He turned back to Hermione and said, "Stupefy." Hermione's eyes closed, she relaxed and Draco lowered his wand.

He went into his bathroom and got into the shower. He started the water and washed him of her. How could he have done this? What did she do to deserve this? He stood under the water, letting it pound on his skin, washing away his hopes and rise with his fears.

What had overcome him, Draco would never really know. His father had a way with the way he said things to make you believe that maybe what he said was true. Draco hung his head as the water grew colder and colder. He turned off the facet and took a towel, drying himself rather hurriedly.

Stepping out f the shower, Draco replaced his black cloak and mask and scooped Hermione up into his arms. She simply lay limp. Draco took her out of his room and back down the hall, down the marbled steps and then to the cobbled dungeons. He opened the door to her cell, with one hand, balancing her with his knee, and stepped into the cell. He laid her on the hay and smoothed some hair out of her face. She really was beautiful. He said the counter-curse and Hermione opened her eyes. She blinked and looked up at him. She opened her mouth and said,

"Save me."


	9. And Then You Kissed Me

Disclaimer-I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters. Those, unfortunately, belong to J.K. Rowling……

Chapter Nine: And Then You Kissed Me

And it hit me that love is a game  
Like in war no one can be blamed  
Yes, it struck me that love is a sport  
So I pushed you a little bit more

Oh, you haunt me with your violent heartbeat at night  
Oh, you strike me with your silence baby, tonight  
Why you haunt me with your violence baby, come hit me!  
You haunt me with your violent heartbeat...

Draco looked down on Hermione. She was so helpless, lying there in his arms. He let her go and stood.

"Save me, please! I beg you!" Hermione crawled at him. Draco edged towards the door. He started to break down inside. She didn't know it was him, she'd never know, he'd make sure of it.

"Please…" Hermione cried. She let her head droop, her shoulders heaving with each sob. Draco left, he couldn't take anymore of it. How could he have done this, how could he not have known?

Draco left her cell and headed back towards his room. Tonight he would move. He would find out what it was that his father had done to make him lose all inhibitions and rape her. Draco felt disgusted with himself. His first time had been with a girl who had never wanted him in the first place. An innocent girl who didn't deserve what was coming for her.

The halls were silent as Draco entered his room. He made for the bathroom where his closet was. He opened the doors and pulled out a trunk from the shadowed depths. He opened it and saw all his Hogwarts things. Pushing away all unwanted thoughts of Hogwarts, Draco emptied the contents and placed his clothes and a few books with his toiletries into the trunk. He scanned the bathroom and left, careful not to look at the bed. He stopped at the door however and turned back. He went to the nightstand and opened the top drawer and then the bottom. He rummaged around for a while until he came across what he was looking for. He pocketed the items and left. Draco descended the stairs and moved down an opposite corridor. These were usually the servant and Death Eaters' chambers, but Draco felt like one of them should be his. There were others there. Other Death Eaters in charge of some prisoner or another. Draco went to the last chamber and opened the door. Inside was a bed with a stripped mattress. The walls were blank, there were no windows. Just a door, opposite of the one he had entered. Draco closed the door and placed his trunk on the floor. He walked to the other door and opened it. It was a meadow with a forest surrounding its perimeter. He recognized it from his childhood. Draco closed the door and moved about the room back to his trunk. He opened it and removed all his articles, placing them in the chest of drawers in one corner and the books on the desk. He moved to the adjacent bathroom which consisted of a shower stall and a toilet with a sink, small counter and mirror. Draco placed all his bathroom stuff on the counter and walked back out. He waved his wand and sheets appeared on the bed. He laid on it; it was the most uncomfortable mattress he had ever slept on, but it would have to do. He reached into his pocket and took out the articles he had taken from his bedside table. He replaced them and stood. He opened the door and then he stopped. He would give them to her later. When it really counted.

One year later…..

Hermione rolled over as her cell door was being opened. She was used to this routine. They would come for her, take her to Malfoy's room where he would proceed to have his way with her and then the Man in Black would bring her back to her cell. Draco Malfoy was different, Hermione knew. At first when she saw him, he looked like a normal person, but then his father would talk to him, whisper things in his ear and suddenly Draco Malfoy wasn't the Draco Malfoy he had been moments before. Hermione stood lazily and was surprised to see that it was the Man in Black. She quickly whipped away her tears and clasped her hands in front of her. He had never come for her, usually it was Lucius Malfoy.

The Man in Black stood in the doorway. He stepped into the room and closed the door. Hermione stepped back. She could sense that something was not at all entirely right. The Man in Black sighed. He took his wand out of his pocket and looked into her eyes. Her amber eyes met his grey ones. And suddenly, Hermione knew. She had looked into those eyes so many times before.

"Malfoy…" Hermione backed up into the wall and slid down it. No, this was her place, her comfort zone. Her couldn't do this to her in here. She began to cry and Draco fell to his knees before her.

"Hermione." Draco removed his mask. His blond hair was all ruffled and messed up, giving him an innocent look. Hermione cried even harder as Draco reached into his pocket and extracted something. He took it, and he held it out to her.

"What is it?" Hermione asked. She didn't dare to take it, though something in the back of her mind told her that it was okay.

"It's a memory. Hermione it's your memory, the one of why you're here, and everything that leads up to it. I'm not the person you think that I am, but you have to understand, that what I did and who I am are two different things that lead up to this." He held the vial out to her. "Please, Hermione, take it. It will tell you everything. Why you're here and why I've been having to…to- well, you know."

Hermione looked at Draco conspicuously. She slowly reached out and took the vial. She held it in her hands and looked at it, all the gases swirling together in a kaleidoscope of colors. She opened it and the swirls of colors escaped. They absorbed around her and leaked into her pores, imprinting the images of a thousand memories into her brain. She saw Dumbledore and Hogwarts, the time travel memories with Malfoy. She saw herself being kidnapped and she saw how pained Draco looked while he extracted her memory of any of it. Hermione's focus came back to the cell and of Draco. She realized everything. It had all come back to her so clearly, all the missing gaps. She cried as the realization of her situation came to perfect focus. She clutched her stomach and turned away from Draco.

"Hermione? What is it?" Draco asked. He no longer felt like hiding his feelings. Every time he had been with her he felt like it was something more than just a lay for fun, more than something to fulfill for his master. He couldn't explain how it happened. He knew he wasn't himself when he raped her, but what he did know was that he had gone from raping her to just plain taking her to making love to her. Draco knew that she felt different. She thought him horrible, a person of such great evil as to not even give him a second thought.

"Draco, I'm late…" Hermione said; she looked up at him, her matted hair falling into her tears. The strands clutched to her face, giving her a terrifying appearance. Her eyes had black rings around them and her cheeks were gaunt and thin, not the healthy plump, rosy, apple cheeks they had been when she first came here. Draco felt bad. That much was for certain. He had done this to her, but he didn't understand. What did she mean by late?

"What do you mean?" Draco asked, reaching out to touch her face. She struck at his hand and looked at him through loathing eyes.

"I mean I'm pregnant Draco. I'm going to have a baby."

Draco Malfoy sat in his room, alone. He watched the wall, and nothing else. When Hermione had told him their news, he had sighed, and then he had chuckled. Hermione had looked at him as though he were crazy, silent tears tracing streams and rivers down her cheeks. Then, when he realized that she wasn't lying, he had cried with her, only he had left her first. He had stood, and turned, slowly. He walked out of the cell and closed the door as though nothing had changed. His head uncovered, he moved past the doors of others who had had it far worse than Hermione. Draco moved like a ghost down the hall to his room where he had entered and sat on the bed, staring at the wall. He had cried at first. Saying, What have I done? and Why change our futures if all I've done is make them none the better? It pained him to think that maybe Hermione could have gone on with her life the way it was in their memories, that was, their memories before he had screwed it all up.

Standing, Draco took the lamp from the table and threw it at the wall; it shattered and burst apart, sending shards in every direction. One came back and cut his arm, right above his Dark Mark. The snake looked oddly distorted now, its head hung more squished on Draco's arm.

Why couldn't I have changed things? is a question most commonly asked in situations like this. But what most don't realize is that it is you that has changed your future and made this happen. It was your consequence for your actions. Draco Malfoy didn't ask to be born Draco Malfoy. It just happened. But he felt through his childhood that he could control the man he was to become. He would never be what his father was, that was a promise he had made to himself at a very young age.

Then again, Malfoy had a certain bad luck with Hermione from the start. First, for there needing to be appearances, he had called her Mudblood and proceeded to torment her and her friends. Potter and Weasley he couldn't really give a rat's ass about, but Hermione was different. Sometimes she would just look at him like maybe he was something other than what he tried to be, like maybe she was the one person to give him a chance to prove everyone, including himself, wrong. Other times, she would give him the most horrible looks, as if if he died she wouldn't give a rat's ass about that either. Hermione Granger was one person you could go to for anything and she would probably give it her best to give you the right answer, or at least some advice. Not that Draco had ever gone to her, he had just heard about it.

But now? Draco had ruined her life. He had made a baby inside of her and he didn't know what to do. He knew that Hermione would never give the baby up. He could just feel it in his bones that Hermione Granger would be the one person to keep her baby, trying to hide and yet live a normal life at the same time. No, Draco would have to take things into his owns hands. If time allowed him to, that is. Draco began to formulate a plan in his head. Tonight, he would take Hermione to his old room; just as he had always known happened before. Then, he would take her here, to his new room and take her away with their child. They would escape through the other door, run away into the forest and everything would be okay.

Suddenly, there was a crash, and then yelling. Sounds of running came from overhead and Draco knew that something had happened. Then he remembered from the memories that the Order had come to rescue all the prisoners.

Draco stood and ran out of the room. He withdrew his wand and ran towards the stairs leading to the corridor where Hermione and the others were being kept. His heart was pounding in his ears as Draco made his way down the stairs, the sounds that had once been up overhead, suddenly behind him. He made it to the corridor and stopped. Harry had Hermione by the arm, taking her out of her cell. She had tears on her cheeks, like she always did these days, and Harry had a weird look on his face.

"Malfoy?" Harry asked, looking confused. Then he hardened and drew his wand.

Draco reached up to his face and realized that he had forgotten his mask, not that it mattered anymore. He raised his wand to meet Harry's and glanced at Hermione. He didn't know if maybe he should kill Harry, or if he should knock him out and see what happens.

"Avada-!" Harry began, Draco prepared to dodge the curse when Hermione out of nowhere launches herself at Harry and knocks his arm out of the way. The green jets ricochet into the stone wall and send chunks of rock through the air. Draco covered his face and then looked to see if Hermione was okay when the dust had settled. She was standing where Harry should have been, looking at the floor. Harry was lying on his stomach with a little blood trickling down his forehead from his hair and splaying onto the floor in a tiny puddle.

"Hermione!" Draco said, running to her. He ran to her, taking her hand and leading her away from all the noises coming from the staircase and up above. Hermione followed along numbly. She didn't know why she had blocked Harry from killing Draco, but something inside of her told her she'd regret it if she didn't.

Before all of this, this war, this baby, Hermione might have given Draco a bigger chance. A chance to change who he is, was, will be. Something inside of her told her not to give up yet, but how could she not? She had no idea what day it was. She didn't even know how old she was anymore. But what she did know was that she had life inside of her. Something that would one day be breathing and living. Hermione knew she would love the child, no matter how it had come to be.

Draco was leading through some kind of maze that wound upwards. They entered a hall and Hermione noticed people dressed in white running around, knocking over things and battling others dressed in black. It was the Order, Hermione knew it. Draco pulled her into his room and closed the door, locking it with both muggle locks and magical ones. He began to scramble about the room. He took off his long heavy black robes and placed on regular muggle clothes. He looked at Hermione who had on a long tunic that was way past acceptable. He pointed his wand at her and said, "Think of something that a normal muggle would wear."

"What?"

"Hermione, please just do it."

Hermione shuffled her feet and thought of a simple pair of jeans and a fitted t-shirt. Draco went into here mind and saw what she was thinking. Now, imagining it in his own head, he waved his wand and Hermione was wearing the clothes. He muttered a quick cleaning spell and Hermione's hair was mat free, clean and silky. Her skin looked pale and almost sickly now that it was rid of all the dirt and grim. Her face was streak free and smooth looking. She looked almost like the old Hermione Granger.

Draco continued with packing a bag when there was a sound of pounding on the door. The yelling was louder, people were yelling spells to unlock the door and get inside. Hermione began to grow panicky and Draco quickly stuffed everything else into the bag. He took Hermione's hand as the people of the Order opened the door.

"Hermione?"

"Ron?"

And then Draco whisked them away, apparating them to Hogwarts. Dumbledore was seated in his office, hands to his chin when Hermione and Draco arrived in front of his desk. No one said anything; they rather stood and looked at the other. Then Hermione fainted, and Draco caught her saying, "Hermione!" loudly as Dumbledore stood and told him to follow him to the infirmary.

And then it hit Draco that love was a game, and that what he felt for Hermione was….

…real…


	10. Hurt

Disclaimer-I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters. Those, unfortunately, belong to J.K. Rowling……

Chapter Ten: Hurt

I wear this crown of thorns  
Upon my liar's chair  
Full of broken thoughts  
I cannot repair  
Beneath the stains of time  
The feelings disappear  
You are someone else  
I am still right here

If I could start again   
A million miles away  
I would keep myself  
I would find a way

Draco laid Hermione on the bed in the infirmary and looked at her. The nurse bustled to and fro between Hermione and the medicine cabinet. She took her pulse and then she checked to see if her eyes were dilated. She ran a series of tests in a matter of seconds, and all Draco could do was to stare at Hermione, her face appeared so innocent.

The nurse stopped. She looked back at the results and then she looked at Dumbledore who had made himself comfortable behind her desk. His expression never wavered as he and the nurse spoke to each other telepathically. Then they both turned on Draco. He looked at his headmaster and the nurse, feeling like he was no longer welcome. Dumbledore stood and walked around from behind the desk. He walked to the infirmary door and opened it. Standing out of the door way he turned back to Draco and motioned with his hand out to the corridor.

Draco left Hermione's bedside with the sense that this would be the last time he would see her for a while. Dumbledore took his arm, with surprising strength for such an old man. He led Draco down the hall, down a series of complicated routes and pathways, behind portraits and tapestries. They stopped somewhere near the seventh floor, next to the room of requirement. Draco felt a little scared about of going to the room of requirement with Dumbledore of all people, but as the old professor mumbled incoherently, and as the door appeared, Draco felt stupid for ever even thinking of what he and his mates used to do in the room of requirement with their girlfriends and instead followed Dumbledore into the room. It was cozy looking. It had a fireplace that was ablaze and two armchairs, puffy and comfy looking. There was a small table between the chair with tea things, and a fat book.

The two men walked into the room, Dumbledore closing the door behind them. He motioned for Draco to have a seat. They sat and Dumbledore poured them both a cup of tea. Draco took his cup when it was offered to him and smelled the warm liquid. The steam radiated off the hot tea and permeated Draco's skin. It felt refreshing, as though the steam was cleansing his skin of everything to do with the past year.

Dumbledore sipped his tea and then placed it on the table, picking the book up off of the wood surface. He rifled through the pages stopping at a dog-eared, worn looking page. There were different colored inks on the paper, shades of every color imaginable. Silently still, Dumbledore held it out to Draco, who took it after he had set down his tea cup. He looked at the pages and then back at Dumbledore. He recognized the book now. It was the one Dumbledore had handed to Hermione, the one that held the prophecy.

"I believe that it is in silver, Mr. Malfoy." Dumbledore said, taking his tea and sipping it. He buttered a crumpet and ate it, whipping his mouth and settling back into his chair. Draco looked back at the page and found the silver writing. It said of a child, born of a muggle born and a hidden thorn of a rose. The child would bring either destruction for the good, or destruction for the bad. There was nothing more than that.

"I don't understand, Professor." Draco said, glancing at the old man.

"Why not?" Dumbledore said in response.

Draco scowled and stared at the professor who was looking into the fire. Draco always knew the old man was mad, and this just proved it.

"Why not? Why would you tell me to read a prophecy and then not tell me what it were about!" Draco said, anger dripping into his voice. He threw the book onto the floor and stood up. Dumbledore merely looked up at Draco like he had just realized that he was not alone in the room.

"Mr. Malfoy. Please, pick up the book and sit down in the chair. Control yourself, child." Draco bent over and grabbed the book, angry at being called a child and plopped back into the arm chair. "The prophecy is the one that I showed Miss Granger, all those months ago in my office. Nights before you took her and fulfilled your own prophecy. You see Mr. Malfoy, there were two prophecies. Your own and Miss Granger's. It would seem that I should have shown you both, both of the prophecies so that things might not have ended up the way they did. If you had both known what could be in store for you, you would be living the lives that you saw in your memories. Now, Mr. Malfoy, I ask that you please reopen that book and read the prophecy written in red. I believe that it's after Miss Grangers…but it might be a few after that."

Malfoy took the book and opened it. It took him a while to find where Hermione's had been, but once he had, he found a whole page and a half of red writing. He looked at Dumbledore who in turn looked at the book and said, "No, that one is blood red. Yours is more of a rosy red." Draco gave Dumbledore an are-you-serious? look and started to turn the page. Three pages, one hundred red prophecies later, Dumbledore told Draco he had found the right one.

The man who will father the Dark Lord's downfall will be the one to change the lives of his entire family. The weight of the world is carried on this child of "Bad Faith"; he will bring the downfall of purebloodism or he will destroy all muggle borns. His child must not be born until the Dark Lord is destroyed. His child will harden the path to what is right and make it clear to do what is easiest.

The prophecy ended there.

"The weight of the world? 'Bad Faith'? What does it all mean? I don't understand." Malfoy said, looking from the book to Dumbledore who was still staring into the fire. Draco followed his gaze to see if maybe the answers were etched into the flames.

"Mr. Malfoy, do you know what your surname means?"

"Uh….." Draco looked at the wall.

"Malfoy means 'Bad Faith.' What the prophecy is saying is that your child will bring the downfall of the Dark Lord, but, your child will also make you not be able to chose between what is right and what is easy. Without the child, the Order still has a chance at surviving and winning, with your child it is certain. But if your child is born Mr. Malfoy, you will have to chose between your family, meaning your wife and child, or you will have to chose between the equal treatment of purebloods and muggle borns."

Dumbledore stood and walked up to a window that materialized as he got closer and closer. It showed the grounds of Hogwarts and was just big enough for two to stand comfortably together. He motioned for Draco to walk and stand next to him. Obediently, Malfoy stood and moved across the room. Together they watched the students of Hogwarts mill about the grounds. Some ran and played hide and go seek. Others just sat with their friends next to the lake. There were couples scattered here and there, some hidden from ground view and others out in the open.

"Draco, I want to tell you that whatever you chose, the fate of the world will be as it has always been destined to be. One person cannot change fate, merely change the way that it happens. Please, do not feel pressured to do anything you would not want to do. I know that this can be exceptionally difficult for a person of any age." And with that Dumbledore was gone. He moved slyly like a fox out of the door and back into the hallway. Draco watched a couple down on the grass. From his point of view they looked to be about seventeen. They kissed and held each other, whispering sweet nothings to each other. Draco turned away and noticed that he was alone. He sighed and left the room himself. He wandered the halls until he reached the portrait of a small little boy with silvery hair and a child's face. He was lying down on the rug in the painting, sucking his thumb and crying. Tears were streaming down his cheeks and making a little pool of water on the carpet.

"Why are you crying?" Draco asked. He felt for the little boy, like no one he had ever cared for in his life. And he couldn't think of reason why he would care for a painting.

The little boy opened his brown eyes and through wet irises, looked at Draco. "I'm crying because now I feel that I won't ever be born."

"Why?" Draco asked. He stepped closer as though to hold the child.

"I think my mummy doesn't want me…" The little boy said, replacing his thumb in his mouth. He curled up on the rug and closed his eyes, crying.

"Your daddy wants you…"

Hermione stared out of the window across from her bed. Insects and birds would fly past every now and then, but mostly it was a blank picture of a blue, blue sky. She touched her stomach and rubbed her fingers across the expanding skin. She was starting to show, which meant that she was farther along than she had expected. In her arm was an IV, pumping nutrients and other vitamins into her blood, helping her to gain some weight.

She was scared. She couldn't be a mother. She knew now that she was twenty years old, today. Much too early for everything to start when she had expected three years ago to just be getting out of college and starting a steady job now.

The nurse stepped out of her office and walked up to Hermione. She plastered a smile on her face which Hermione did not return. She didn't feel that she could smile ever again. The nurse stopped smiling and smoothed the blankets out at the bottom of the bed. Hermione looked at her, as if to say "What?"

"I have found out the sex of the baby, and who the father is."

"I already know who the father is." Hermione said. She turned away, back to the window.

"Yes, but we needed to make sure."

Hermione locked eyes with the nurse's and sent a message of go away with her mind. The nurse pursed her lips and stepped away. She rearranged the food on the little table next to Hermione and said, "You're going to have a son Miss Granger." Then, "The Headmaster would like to have a word with you." Then she left, mumbling as she went.

Professor Dumbledore stepped into the room and Hermione looked at him. She took in his clothes and cool demeanor and knew why everyone hated him. He was just too self confident acting, especially at times when no one else was.

"Miss Granger. I have just been talking to Mr. Malfoy." Dumbledore said. Hermione didn't know why but she found herself sitting a little bit straighter, entranced by whatever he had to say about Malfoy. "I showed him something that I know now I should have shown you the time that I showed you your own prophecy."

Dumbledore pulled out the fat book from somewhere in his robes and held it in both hands before him. He studied it and ran his fingers over the cover, fingering the designs and inscriptions on the binding. "Miss Granger, I am afraid, that I have not been completely honest with you. I have here in my hands, the prophecies of all the people of the British Wizarding world, including some of the Irish and Scottish, but that's beside the point." Dumbledore opened the book and turned the pages. He stopped at the page of Draco's prophecy and handed it to her. "It won't make sense, but I'll help you to understand."

Hermione took the book and rested it on her stomach. Dumbledore silently pointed to the red text and Hermione silently read it. She scrunched her eyebrows together and rubbed her eyes. After reading it three times, Hermione set the volume aside and contemplated what she had just read.

"I don't understand what it says about the child…"

"Do you know what the name Malfoy means, Miss Granger?"

"….Bad Faith. I remember reading it somewhere, in a book about the most powerful families in Europe. The Malfoy's are some of the oldest and the most powerful." Hermione said, absently rubbing her tummy.

"Correct. The child is simply when you and Mr. Malfoy's child is born, it will help the Order yes, but the Order can succeed without your child. When the child is born, Mr. Malfoy will have to choose between his family and the good of the people. Meaning, all the purebloods and muggle borns in the world."

"Malfoy will have to choose between the good of the people?" Hermione said, laughter in her voice. "I didn't think that Malfoy could choose what underwear to wear in the morning without help much less decide the fate of the world."

"Ah, Miss Granger that is where you are wrong." Dumbledore said, sitting on the edge of the bed. Hermione sat up more and looked confused. She was not used to the feeling of being wrong and she wasn't sure that she liked it. "People do not change fate. You cannot change fate. It is the choices we make, the things that we do and say that change the way fate will happen. Do you understand?"

"I think so…" Hermione said. She scratched her hairline and settled back against the pillows. She suddenly felt tired and weak and thought that maybe she should sleep.

"I think that maybe you should rest Miss Granger. Tomorrow, come to the Great Hall and sit at the Head Table. You are after all, our guest." Dumbledore said, a certain twinkle in his eye. He left as the nurse came back out with a goblet full of something that was steaming and bubbling. Hermione felt sick to her stomach. As she was settling into the pillows she saw Dumbledore whisper something into her ear and the nurse smile and nod. They parted and the nurse brought Hermione the goblet, said, "Drink" and then was gone again. Hermione's head felt heavy, her eyes like lead. She laid her head back and closed her eyes, immediately drifting off into a sweet dream filled with two certain blonds.

Darkness was creeping into the halls when Draco made it back to the infirmary. Hermione was asleep on her side, facing the door when he walked in. The nurse was nowhere to be seen. Draco crept in trying to be quiet when the door swung back and slammed shut. The force of it echoed through the infirmary and then there was a small voice in the night that said,

"You have to hold it and slowly let it drift to a close, otherwise you'll wake the entire castle and-" there was a clanging and the bedroom light turned on in the nurses' office. "-the nurse"

Draco silently cursed as the nurse came out in a tartan bathrobe. She clutched the sides together and held out a lantern type thing. When she saw Draco however, she sighed, shook her head and then she went back into her room. Draco stood a little bit straighter and walked over to Hermione's bed. She still faced opposite of him but as he got closer he could see that her eyes were open and she was looking at him as he came into her line of vision. Their eyes met and Draco pulled up a chair. He placed it next to Hermione's bed and sat down in it. He opened his mouth to speak when Hermione sat up and placed a finger on his lips. She looked deep into his eyes and then she said, "Don't speak." Draco watched her face, studied her eyes and her lips, her nose and her cheeks. Everything about her he watched and studied. The way she sat and entwined her fingers, the way she sat with both legs to one side instead of Indian style. Hermione in turn also studied him. She watched his eyes mostly for they were the window to who he really was. They were emotion eyes, or that at least what she called them. To her, they held a certain glimmer that said what he was feeling. She could see that he felt deeply for her, but just how she didn't know. She wasn't even sure of how he could feel for her, but that was something they would tackle together. Draco stood and moved the chair to the end of the bed. He then moved the table between Hermione's bed and the one opposite it and pushed that bed closer to her own. They weren't touching, just sitting close to one another. Draco climbed between the covers and settled down as did Hermione in her own bed. They stared at each other until they could not keep their eyes open any longer. Draco drifted off firsts, but Hermione followed soon afterwards. Both of them slept for the entire night peacefully. The most peaceful they had slept since Draco had taken them to Malfoy Manor. In their sleep Draco reached out and Hermione's hand found his own. They clasped each other and slept on.

Sometime in the night Draco woke up. He released Hermione's hand and lay on his back. He thought about the prophecies and all that he would have to do with his life. Deep inside of him he knew that he would never give up Hermione and their child, but he felt that maybe he should do something good for the world just to prove that he wasn't the heartless bastard that everyone said that he was. He looked at Hermione as she slept. She looked so peaceful, almost happy, though he knew that she wasn't, at least not entirely. Maybe she could be happier if he just wasn't here; near her to remind her off all the things he did (i.e. get her pregnant.)

Getting out of the bed, Draco stretched and walked to the window. The sun was just rising, casting red, pink and gold rays across the horizon and ground. Draco sighed and turned back to Hermione who had just shifted and started to wake up. Draco didn't move as she turned and looked at the bed he had been in just moments before. She traced her fingers over the pillowcase and then let her hand rest on the white sheet. Hermione looked at the window and saw Draco. She sat up in her bed and stared at him. He stared back. Then he left. He was out of the door and down the hall towards the Great Hall before Hermione had time to register what had happened, if anything had happened at all.

Hermione got out of bed and stretched her arms over her head. She relaxed and then she took her clothes and left the infirmary. She made her way to a staircase and climbed and climbed until she reached the portrait of a little boy with blond hair. She smiled at him; he smiled back revealing two pearly white teeth. He ran towards her and stopped as far as the portrait would let him go.

"Hey there!" Hermione said. She reached up and touched the portrait where his cheek would be. The little boy smiled if possible wider. "I'm glad to see that you're still the Head Girls portrait."

"No, I was only your portrait, but when you left, they never had another Head Girl, so I've been here waiting for you to get back. I want to tell you a story! Can I tell you a story?" The little boy said excitedly. He continued anyway, without Hermione's consent. "Well, remember how I said, how I said that I didn't know who my parents were?"

Hermione nodded and said "Mmm" as the little boy started to play with some of his toys.

"I found out who my parents are, but I don't think that my mummy really wants me…" The little boy appeared sad and more of threw his toy across the room where it hits the wall and broke.

"Oh, now don't do that, please. I bet you that your mummy wants you! How could she not? You're precious and sweet, please don't think that she doesn't want you." The little boy started to cry and Hermione's heart went out to him. She stepped as close as she could to the portrait and listened to the child sob.

"I met my daddy last night…" The portrait said. Hermione smiled and said, "See, if you met your daddy, then you are destined to be born. Your parents will be lucky to have you!"

He smiled and Hermione smiled with him. "He looks like me. He said that everyone in our family has this color of hair, but that I had my mummy's eyes. He said that he was so happy that I was being born…"

Hermione went quiet and didn't move. "Everyone in our family had this color of hair"? His had the platinum hair that…Malfoy had. "And I have my mother's eyes"? Hermione stepped closer and looked deeply into the boys eyes. They were golden, with amber burst and rays coming through the gold around the iris.

"You're my son…"

Three miles away, Draco sat in a bedroom of the Boar's Head in the village next to Hogwarts. He stared at the needle and drugs. What had he gotten himself into? Everything just seemed easier when under the influence, that's what the man had said, so Draco bought some. And now, here he was, in a dirty hotel with shots of heroine and rows of cocaine.

"I need to know that I still feel that I can feel…."

Draco took one of the needles and tied a rubber piece up above his elbow. He clenched his teeth together and pushed the needle into his skin. He relaxed as the drugs poured into his blood. He removed the needle and then he fell backwards on the bed…a little drop of blood fell from his arm to his leg, staining his pants red. It was small, but it was enough.

I hurt myself today

To see if I still feel

I focus on the pain

The only thing that's real

The needle tears a hole

The old familiar sting

Try to kill it all away

But I remember everything

…


	11. Baby Goodbye

Disclaimer-I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters. Those, unfortunately, belong to J.K. Rowling……

Chapter Eleven: Baby Goodbye

Love is blind

Unkind

And always gets its way

And love won't spare

Us joy

Or consequence or pain

And love won't wait for me

To figure out how to save

Goodbye, Baby,

Goodbye…

Hermione stepped into the Great Hall sometime around lunch. After her encounter with the little boy, she had opted to bathe in the prefects' bathroom. She felt horrible, knowing now that a portrait of what could be her son thought that she didn't want him. And he had met Draco? When had all of this happened? And by the way, where was Draco? He had left that morning and she hadn't seen him since.

The house tables in the Great Hall were as they had always been. Arranged in rows leading up to the Head Table, spanning the length of the Hall, stopping at the stairs that led up to the Head's table. Hermione walked between the Gryffindor table and what appeared to be the Ravenclaw table. She kept her head low, embarrassment creeping into her, staining her cheeks a perfect shade of pink. Automatically, her right hand went to her stomach and rested there as if to protect her unborn child. It felt strange to know that life grew inside of her.

Whispers glided across the hall from student to student, wondering who this girl was, and most importantly, why was she here? Hermione climbed the three little steps to the Head's table and looked up, right into Severus Snape's eyes. Both of them looked at the other, one unsure of what to do, the other with blank surprise. Finally, Dumbledore stood and opened his arms to Hermione. She looked away from Snape and at her old Headmaster. Dumbledore smiled and then he motioned to the chair to his right. "Please, Hermione, have a seat. There is much I would like to talk to you about."

The teachers and students alike watched as this young girl took a seat at the Headmasters right. She looked too young and innocent to be sitting at a table full of older, wiser people. Dumbledore sat down again and leaned close to Hermione.

"Now, I realize that things are going to be very difficult for you and Mr. Malfoy, so I have a proposition for you." He took a piece of toast and buttered it and put jam on it. Hermione waited for him to take a bite and finish chewing. When he had finally swallowed he said, "I would like you to come back and teach here at Hogwarts. Out in the world will be exceptionally dangerous for you, seeing as to how the Dark Lord would love to have your child and probably kill you, and I know that no one here really wants that. But, to ensure your safety, I have opened up a spot helping Professor Snape. You will take over all the first three years of potions classes, if that is indeed what you would like to do."

Hermione thought about it. Then she looked at Dumbledore again and said, "What about Malfoy? Isn't he in as much danger as me?"

Dumbledore smiled and said, "Well, yes, he is. But my dear, I do not know that Mr. Malfoy will ever even set foot in this castle again. I fear that he has been too far tempted with the wonders of the world to be bothered at coming back here again." With that, Dumbledore turned away and finished eating. Hermione looked at her golden plate in front of her and then she looked at all the food set before her. Her stomach lurched and she had the sudden feeling that she was going to be sick. Professor McGonagall noticed this just in the nick of time and ushered the poor girl out of the hall through a back room. The two women made it to a tiny bathroom where Hermione ran to one of the stalls and proceeded to throw up everything she had eaten the night before, which wasn't much. McGonagall stood at the sinks, her eyes unfocused and her hands clasped before her.

When Hermione emerged from the stall, her hair wild and eyes watery, McGonagall and her met eyes. McGonagall appeared to not know what to do. She shifted and stood straight. Hermione stood as straight as she could, mustering herself to be strong and bold. The older woman sighed but did not relax. She said to Hermione, "I know that you want Harry dead, but I am willing to keep a secret. I won't tell the Order that you are here, mainly because Dumbledore has asked it of all of us."

"I don't want Harry dead. I just don't want to kill people because of different beliefs. Why is it that you people think that some skinny teenager is right just because he couldn't be killed by the Dark Lord? What's so special about him?" Hermione said. She turned on her heel and left McGonagall in the bathroom, still standing by the sinks. She left through some door and found herself in the prefects' corridor. Around her were the portraits of all the past prefects, which considering how many years Hogwarts had been around was quite a lot. Most of them whispered among each other and when Hermione reached the ones of the years most recent, they all looked at her and talked behind their hands. She found the one of her and Ron, painted after their sixth year. Ron was all blushed and embarrassed and Hermione wasn't paying him any mind. The portrait Hermione and the real Hermione looked at each other and didn't speak. Then the real Hermione heard, "Well, well. It would seem that the Mudblood has finally found someone to screw her. You pregnant with Weaslebees kid, Granger?"

Hermione turned slowly and looked at the portrait across from her own portrait. It was Draco Malfoy when he was seventeen years old. His hair hung lazily into his eyes, something that used to make all of the girls in their year swoon and collapse at his presence. Hermione narrowed her eyes and walked right up to the stupid portrait.

"Actually, you asshole, this is your kid inside of me!" Hermione sort of yelled, whispered to him. Malfoy laughed and fell on the ground. He rolled around for a while and then he relaxed.

"Why would I, Draco Malfoy, ever even touch you?"

"I don't know, you tell me."

With that Hermione was gone. She ran down the corridor and up to the infirmary. She fell onto the bed and laid on her stomach until she realized that it probably wasn't good for the baby. She rolled over and sobbed. Her shoulders shook and her face looked like she had eaten something sour, but Hermione continued to sob until the nurse came out of her office and rushed over to her. As she began to fuss and poke at Hermione, did the young girl get up off of the bed and run out. She ran until she met the Entrance Hall. She opened the doors and breathed in the fresh air. She ran down the steps and continued out over the grounds, through the gate and into the village.

Hermione stopped outside of the three broomsticks just as two burly man threw another out into the street. It was nearing four o'clock and Hermione was sure that whoever this was was drunk. She was about to go inside when the person said, "Hermione?" Hermione turned and looked to see it was Draco. He smiled really big and opened his arms from where he was on the ground. He yelled, "HERMIONE! I WAS JUST ABOUT TO COME AND GET YOU! I FOUND US A PLACE! IT'S OVER IN THE HOG'S HEAD…NO! THE BOAR'S HEAD! WELL…IT'S AT SOME PIG'S HEAD!"

"Malfoy! Be quiet! People are starting to stare!" Hermione said bending down to him and grabbing his arm. She tugged to pull him up, but Malfoy remained on the ground.

"LET THEM STARE! THEY ARE GREAT STARING THINGS! GREAT STARING THINGS, STARE! STARE AT THIS WONDERFUL WOMAN!" Malfoy stood unsteadily to his feet and wobbled as Hermione placed her arm underneath his shoulder. She wrapped her other arm around his waist as he began to sing a song to her name. "Hermione! Hermione! Oh, Hermione! You are my sunshine! Hermione, Hermione, Hermione, you have a strange name, but OHHH! HERMIONE! I LOVE YOU!"

Hermione couldn't help but smile at how stupid he was being. He wobbled a bit and Hermione placed her left hand on his stomach, steadying him. Malfoy hummed a bit to some song she had never heard and led her to the pub he was staying at. They nearly fell inside the door and Draco actually did fall when they reached the stairs. Hermione felt like leaving him there, but decided against it. She pulled him to his feet and led him carefully up the stairs. After about thirty minutes of trying to get up the stairs and resting a bit about half way through because Draco was tired, and Hermione was ready to beat him, they made it to a corridor. Draco suddenly became stiff and wouldn't budge. Hermione tugged at his arm and said "I really don't have any patience for you, Malfoy. Get to your room, now please so I can leave and get on with my life."

"Do you promise to leave? You won't stay?" Malfoy said. Luckily Hermione wasn't as stupid as Draco hoped she was, so she shook her head yes and followed Draco as he led her to one of the rooms. The door had a number fourteen on it that had fallen sideways and looked like it could fall off any day now. Malfoy reached into his pocket and felt around for his key. After a couple of minutes he said, "I can't find it."

"Are you serious?" Hermione said. When Draco nodded yes, she pulled him towards her and stuffed her hand into his front pocket.

"Well, Granger. Usually I like to start once we've made it to the bed, but of you want to start out here, suit yourself." Draco said. He leaned into Hermione and tried to kiss her. Hermione pushed at him and said, "All I'm doing is looking for your key. You probably missed it in your drunken stupor."

Malfoy smirked as though to say, whatever and let Hermione do a search of his pockets. Hermione checked both of the front pockets and moved to the back. She found a load of cash, but put it back. In the final pocket, she reached in and pulled out a little gold key. She held it up in front of him and gave a look like a little kid gives to another when they've done something better. Draco smiled and swayed. Hermione turned to open the door. She placed the key in the lock and turned the handle. The door stuck a little around the edges, but Hermione threw her body weight against it and the door flew open, causing her to loose her balance. She turned to get Draco when he suddenly closed his eyes and keeled over backwards onto the floor. His head hit the wall behind him and his arms and legs spread out like the Vitruvian Man from Leonardo Da Vinci. Hermione sighed and took the wand she had found in his robes and levitated him into the room. She was about to place him on the bed when she found the assortment of needles and drugs. She momentarily forgot about Draco levitating in the air and just let him drop. He landed with a crash to the ground, sending dust particles into the air, but Hermione paid him no mind. She picked up the needles and drugs in her two hands and stared at them.

"So THIS is the worldly wonders that the great Draco Malfoy has gotten stuck in!" Hermione yelled. She turned to give him a piece of her mind when she noticed that he was on the floor. Instead of being nice and levitating him and putting him someplace more comfortable, she left him there. Hermione took the drugs in her hands and threw them into the trash can. She emptied his pockets of all the money she had found earlier and placed it in her own. She wouldn't use it, just keep it from him so that he couldn't get anymore drugs. It crossed Hermione's mind that he could just go to Gringotts and get some out of his vault, but she knew that he was too lazy to do something like that.

Hermione walked to the dresser and opened the top drawer. She rifled through the contents and found more drugs, prescription drugs. She read some of the labels and laughed at the hilariousness that Draco could ever need sleeping pills and things of that nature. She threw those into the trash and continued on down the drawers, emptying anything that even resembled drugs. The trash began to overflow; Hermione waved Malfoy's wand and the trash disappeared. She went into the grungy little bathroom and found pipes and more needles.

"Dear God, Draco. You're alone for only a morning and already you're into this? How bad can it get?" Hermione said as she swept the things into the garbage. She looked in the medicine cabinet and took out all of the bottles in there. She read the dates on the labels and saw that he had been getting these for the past year. It was worse than she thought. "He must've been hiding them pretty damn good."

There was stirring in the bedroom so Hermione quickly got rid of the trash with a wave of her wand and stepped out into the room. Malfoy had not noticed her presence. He sat up and shook his head slightly. He stumbled over to the bedside table and opened the drawer. He moved things around, searching. When he did not find it, he opened the next drawer and the next, all to the same effect. He began to grow angry, Hermione could see that. She hid in the bathroom behind the door, watching him through the crevice of the doorjamb and the door itself. He tore at his room, uplifting the mattress and tossing the bedside table at the wall where it broke into pieces. Draco ripped the drawers from the bigger dresser and poured the contents on the floor. When nothing appeared there, he turned and went to the bathroom. Hermione pressed herself against the wall as Malfoy came into the room and opened the medicine cabinet. He pulled everything out, breaking random bottles and casting his toothbrush and toothpaste on the ground. He cried and then he fell to the ground. He punched the wall, leaving a hole in the plaster and wallpaper.

Hermione exhaled, slowly, never having had realized that she had been holding her breath. Malfoy suddenly perked up and looked at the door. Hermione covered her mouth with her hand and cursed herself for breathing so loudly. Malfoy lunged at the door and pulled it towards him. Hermione cowered as he looked down on her, realization hitting him like a stone cold wall. "You!" Malfoy said, grabbing her by her shoulders and pulling her towards him. "You, what did you do with my drugs?"

Malfoy looked crazy. His hair was all ruffled and his eyes bloodshot. He shook Hermione a bit and yelled in her face. "Tell me what you did with them, woman! Where are they? I need them!"

Hermione pushed Malfoy off of her; he stumbled backwards. Hermione advanced on him and said, "You ruined my life, Malfoy! The least I could do was make sure you didn't ruin yours, but by the looks of it, you already have."

There were sounds of footsteps on the stairs out in the corridor, but neither of them really paid it any attention. "You want to know what I did with your precious drugs? I got rid of them! They're gone Malfoy, along with your money so that you can't buy anymore."

"You bitch."

"Sick bastard."

"I needed those, Hermione. They're prescription… I need them." Malfoy whispered. He looked at her strangely. Hermione edged out of the bathroom back into the bedroom. Malfoy followed. He clenched his fists and towered over her, and for the first time in a long time, Hermione feared for her life.

"You don't need them, Draco. You really don't need them." Hermione said softly. Malfoy looked at the ground and then he looked around his trashed room. His eyes focused and unfocused.

Then, someone knocked on the door. Hermione and Draco jumped in surprise. Hermione waved the wand and everything was as it should be. Malfoy collapsed on the bed, rolled to his side, his back to the door and Hermione went to see who it was. She opened it a little bit, and looked into the eyes of the old bartender. He had a cleaning cloth and a mug in his hand. When Hermione opened the door, he tried to see around her, trying to peer into the room to see what was going on. Hermione smiled and said, "Hello." The man didn't say anything. He looked at Draco lying on the bed and Hermione's pregnant stomach and then he grunted. He turned on his heel and scratched his bottom. He mumbled something about stupid teenagers always coming to his pub to do naughty things, when there were plenty of other places to go to. Hermione closed the door; Draco rolled over to face her. He looked at her with emotionless eyes.

Sighing, Hermione went to his side. She sat on the edge of the bed and eased him back on the bed. She smoothed his dirty hair out of his face and covered him up with some blankets. Standing, Hermione went to the bathroom and grabbed a cup sitting on the floor. She filled it with warm water and took one of the washcloths from the rack beside the shower. Hermione went back into the bedroom. She took her original seat at the end of the bed and placed the washcloth into the cup. She rang it out to get all the excess water out and folded it into long thirds before placing it onto his forehead. She took the wand from the side table and placed a charm on the cloth to stay at a constant temperature.

"Why are you doing this for me?" Malfoy asked as Hermione smoothed the warm cloth on his forehead.

"I think the question that needs to be answered right now is, why are you doing this to yourself?" Hermione said. She stood and walked back into the bathroom, emptied the cup and walked back to Draco. He looked deep into her eyes and said, "I thought it would help with the pain, and the choices. The Death Eaters used to do it. Everyone there used to do it. I guess I was influenced. It isn't anything new to me, Hermione. It has been a part of my life now for the past year. Really, I'm better off with it. I need it back."

Hermione slapped him. Draco's cheek turned pink as he reached up to touch his face. "You do not need it, Malfoy! How did you survive when you were at Hogwarts? How did you not do it there too? Or did you just hide it from me?"

"I did do it at Hogwarts, I just-I just…Hermione, do you hate me?" Malfoy asked, his eyes silvery orbs. Hermione looked at him and said,

"Malfoy, you're pathetic."

Hermione stood and walked to the door. Her hand was on the knob when Draco said,

"Will you stay with me?"

Silently, Hermione turned back to Draco, who was lying in the bed like a child who's afraid of the dark. Hermione sighed and placed her hand on her hip. Draco smiled slightly and said, "If you want to help me, then why would you leave me?" Hermione had a sudden image of the little boy guarding the Head Girl's room. Draco and him resembled so much right now. Hermione let her arm drop to her side and walked over to the bed. "Move over then."

Draco scooted over closer to the wall, letting Hermione squeeze between the sheets. "Can you turn off the light please?" Draco said sweetly. Hermione reached over and pulled the cord.

Darkness crept into the room. Hermione looked at the clock next to the bed and was surprised to see that it was already ten o'clock at night. She turned onto her side, back to Draco and tried to get comfortable. Malfoy placed his arm around her; Hermione threw it off. They did this for several minutes until Draco resolved into talking to her.

"Hermione?"

"What?"

"Do you feel him move?"

"Pardon?"

"The baby, do you ever feel him move?"

Hermione opened her eyes and looked out at the room. Shadows cast eerie faces onto the walls and the wardrobe. Hermione readjusted and said, "No, it's too early for that."

"Oh." Draco was lying on his back, twiddling his thumbs.

Hermione figured he was getting ready to go back to sleep when suddenly he said,

"Do you ever wonder what would've happened if I hadn't gotten you pregnant? Do you think that maybe we would be living the life we had in our memories?"

"Malfoy, I don't know what would've happened. I don't think that anyone knows what our futures would've been like. This is our life now. More of this is my life…" Hermione said. She had sat up and was now getting prepared to leave the bed. "And now, if you don't shut up, I'm leaving. I don't really care as of now what happens to you, because I'll be too tired to even care about myself."

Malfoy grabbed her shoulders and pulled her down. Hermione lay down again and Malfoy covered her up. Hermione thought about how good of a father he would be, but pushed it out of her mind.

"I'll be quiet I promise."

Hermione settled back down again and closed her eyes. Malfoy stayed awake. He rubbed his stomach and pondered on just how he would execute his plan. When Hermione's breathing had become regular, Draco carefully started to get out of the bed. When he had made it with one arm and leg on each side of her, Hermione rolled onto her back and raised her knees, right into his crotch. Wincing, Malfoy fell; he rolled just in the nick of time and landed on the floor. Hermione stirred at the noise, but continued to sleep. Draco grabbed his crotch and moved into the fetal position. He moaned slightly and felt sick to the stomach. He stood shakily to his feet and took the wand from the table by the bed. Hermione slept on as he went to the door and unlocked it. He turned back to her and said, "I'm sorry" before slipping off into the corridor and melting into the darkness of the night.

Draco walked out of the pub and apparated to the Leaky Cauldron. He felt terrible, but he just couldn't stay. He left through the back door of the pub and tapped the bricks with his wand. He stepped back as the wall shifted and revealed the opening to Diagon Alley. Draco bent his head at the bright lights of the stores and shops and walked in, blending into the crowds of people. He walked down past the quidditch shop, the parchment and ink store, past Madame Malkins which had a closed sign in the door to the very end of the road where Ollivanders was. He stepped into the alleyway between Ollivanders and an ice cream parlour. He stepped up to a break in the brick and tapped it with his index finger, twice. Suddenly, the bricks turned into a door and someone standing behind the door opened a trap door at the top. Draco had to look up to see who it was. The person grunted and opened the door.

"Master Malfoy." The man said opening the door. Draco stepped inside and walked up a series of stairs. A group of men sat around a table, each taking turns at a bong. They smiled stupidly at Malfoy as he placed a few coins into a jar and sat down among them. He shook off his cloak that he still wore from when he had gotten back to his room and found Hermione. Malfoy shook his head and took the bong when it was passed to him. He placed it to his lips and breathed in the heavy smoke. He held his breath for as long as he could, letting the sweet smoke ensnare his senses before he released his breath and took another hit. He passed the bong on as he closed his eyes and became part of a world so far from the truth. A world of magic…


	12. Something Pretty

Disclaimer-I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters. Those, unfortunately, belong to J.K. Rowling……

Chapter Twelve: Something Pretty

At the most I'm a glare,

I'm the hopeless son who's hardly there.

I'm the open sign that's always busted.

I'm the friend you need but can't be trusted.

Here I am where I've been

I've walked a hundred miles in tobacco skin,

And my clothes are worn and gritty.

And I know ugliness,

Now, show me something pretty.

Five months later…

Hermione Granger stood at the front of a classroom full of first years. She was Professor Parks to them. Dumbledore thought it best if maybe the students didn't know of her true being. Hermione walked among the students, her pregnant belly jutting out before her; a constant reminder of a damned soul who had done this to her. The night Hermione had stayed with Draco; she had awoken to find that she was very much alone. Hermione could not believe that she had actually trusted him to stay with her, to at least try to be better. She assumed that all habits were hard to break, but not impossible. Then again, Hermione had only given him a night to go cold turkey and get better. She had gotten up and returned to Hogwarts immediately going to Dumbledore, telling him that she would be honored to teach here, especially seeing as she had no teaching license.

Teaching began to release a lot of stress that Hermione had been carrying. At first she had felt that maybe all the kids would hate her because she was so young, but then she began to realize, that she was only three years older than most of the seventh years here. Hermione began to relax and even gained the reputation as one of the best potion teachers Hogwarts had ever seen, much to the fury of a certain greasy haired Slytherin. Hermione tried to stay out of the way of the teachers who had become accustomed of talking bad about her now when she was within hearing distance. It reminded her of when she was in school. There was always someone that no one liked, someone they would always talk about and poke fun at. If she thought about it, which she tried not to, she remembered that it was usually her in school that had been made fun of.

"Professor?" a short girl with straight blond hair said. She was one of the best students at Hogwarts in her class. Her name was Ellen, a muggle born who reminded Hermione of herself at that age. Ellen was one of Hermione's favorites; she had few as it was.

"Yes?" Hermione walked around a couple of desks towards the young girl. Ellen took her heavy potions book and pointed to an ingredient in the text. "I couldn't find it in the potions cabinet and I was wondering if Wolfsbane wouldn't do the same?"

Hermione smiled at the girl, surprised at how smart she was. Hermione said to Ellen while pointing at the text, "It would do the same as this in certain occasions. This is not one of those times; therefore, Wolfsbane would be the only thing to do the trick." Hermione stood up straight as a boy of eighteen came to the door. His name was Isaac, and one of the only seventh years to have made it to advanced placement potions. He knocked slightly and remained quiet as he and Hermione made eye contact. "There is more Wolfsbane in my office. You may go and get some."

Ellen nodded ok as Hermione went to see what it was Isaac wanted. She stepped out into the hall and cracked the door. Isaac smiled broadly at her. He stepped closer to her and embraced her around her stomach. Hermione stiffened slightly and then hugged him back warmly. Isaac had always been there for her, Hermione knew that he had feelings for her, and maybe she had feelings for him too. They had met the night that Hermione came back from the village. He had accidentally knocked into her and after they both apologized, they began to talk. First, it was random things, and then the conversation became a little more personal. Hermione thought back to it…

"You do realize that I am your teacher, right?" Hermione said. She was leaning against the wall in one of the fourth floor corridors. Isaac had smiled and hung his head slightly.

"Only for the next year, then I'm out," Isaac had said. He stepped close to her and looked into her eyes. "I don't know what it is about you, Hermione, but I think that we could have something special… Maybe we just need to know each other as people first, and not as teacher and student?"

Hermione looked deep into his eyes and remembered that she had smiled up at him. She had nodded her head yes, while Isaac said that maybe he should go since it was so late. She asked him what he was doing out at this hour, and he had smirked. After that, they began to talk out of class; the random questions before had just been strictly teacher/student were gone. Now things were different. Isaac had always been there for her in a sense that no other man in her life had. He listened to her, he talked to her, he helped her when she got morning sickness and even got her things when she could no longer get on a stool to reach it. Isaac was different, and she liked it. After all, she had never known Draco Malfoy, had never talked to him, she didn't even know his middle name for Merlin's sake… no, Isaac was the best thing for her and her baby, that much was for certain.

"Isaac, what is it?" Hermione asked, breaking their embrace.

"Professor Dumbledore asked me to come and get you." Isaac said. He held her at arms length. He reached up and smoothed some of her hair from her face.

"I thought you were supposed to be in class, why would Dumbledore come and get you out pf class when he could just come and get me himself?" Hermione asked, playfully pushing his hand away. Isaac smiled and said,

"Ok, you caught me Miss Parks, I admit that I was merely looking for a way to come and see you."

"You know that we can only see each other out of school."

"If you think about it, Hermione, we are always in school. We live at school!" Isaac said.

"I know, but-" Hermione stopped and clutched her stomach. A tight cramp rippled across her abdomen, shooting pain through her body. Hermione doubled over, clutching her stomach while Isaac tried to figure out what was wrong.

"Hermione? What is it? What's wrong, tell me!" Isaac said. He bent to her level, trying to see her face.

"I think I just went into labor." Hermione said. She stumbled back to her classroom, told the students to get out and that class was over early and went to her desk. She pulled out a piece of parchment and quickly scribbled

Dumbledore-

I'm going to St. Mungo's. I'm in labor and I'm taking Isaac Law with me.

-Hermione Parks

She handed the letter to Isaac and said "Get me off of the grounds. We'll give the note to the first person we see getting out of here."

Isaac nodded and took Hermione's arm. He pulled her to her feet as another contraction hit her. She kept on walking though, pushing herself to be strong.

Coincidentally, the first person they saw just happened to be Professor Snape. Isaac handed him the note and said, "Give it to Dumbledore," before he lead Hermione off. Snape looked pissed at being ordered about, but none the less went out of his way back to the Great Hall where he had been moments before to deliver the note. He tossed it at Dumbledore who caught it and opened it. He sighed and closed it, placing it next to his plate. He said thank you to Snape and then he looked up at the magical sky, watching as the snowy sky turned a sudden gold. "Things will never be the same." He said. McGonagall looked at the ceiling and then resumed her eating. She was used to Dumbledore's random speeches, and was not about to get lost in this one.

Hermione and Isaac made it to the gate where Isaac apparated them to the hospital. They arrived at the reception desk in front a woman with pink hair and three nose rings. She had a file out and was filing away at her bright purple nails. Her name tag read, "Gemma", but she looked anything but.

"We need to see a doctor immediately." Isaac said as Hermione began to take short breaths. She lent against him and continued to breathe in and out slow but fast.

"Well, you'll have to have a seat. Doctor will be here in a minute to see you." Gemma said, she blew a bubble with her orange gum and stared up Isaac.

"MY GIRLFRIEND IS ABOUT TO HAVE A FREAKIN' BABY, NOW GET HER IN THERE NOW!" Isaac yelled. Half of the waiting room turned and openly stared. Hermione nearly fainted from being called his girlfriend but quickly forgot about it as another contraction hit her. Gemma half stood and looked at Hermione. She then picked up what could have been a telephone in the muggle world and said, "Doctor, we have a hysterical couple down here. The guy says the girl's in labor, but I was wondering if maybe I should send them down?"

Gemma waited as someone on the other line yelled into the receiver. Hermione would've killed her if she could, but now was not the time to lose her head. Isaac didn't even wait for an answer just took Hermione and carried her bridal style down the hall to another nurse who was looking at a binder. This nurse was much more helpful; she lead them to an O.R. room and changed Hermione's clothes into a hospital gown. Isaac and the nurse helped Hermione to the bed, where she fell onto her back and grasped her stomach.

"Are you the father?" the nurse asked turning to Isaac.

"YES, he is!" Hermione yelled as another contraction came. Why were they so close together?

The nurse bustled out of the room and seconds later, a whole team of physicians were in the room, preparing things and trying to help Hermione.

The doctor came in a few seconds after them and deemed Hermione too far contracted to be able to have an epidural. Hermione moaned when she heard this and Isaac looked faint. He sat on a couch that was out of the way of everyone and tried not to vomit.

Hermione's body began to tell her to push, so she did. The doctor and nurses told her to wait, that it wasn't time yet and Hermione yelled back to them, "It damn well is time! If this baby wants out, then the BABY WILL GET OUT!" Hermione laid her head back and groaned in pain. She looked for Isaac and saw him sitting on the couch. When he saw that she was looking at him, he stood and walked up to her. She grasped her hand and smiled through tears. He smiled back slightly and watched as the doctor put on some clean gloves and told her to start pushing. The nurses told Isaac to count to ten for her and then rest ten seconds before starting to count again. He did as they asked, counting and resting as Hermione pushed with all her might.

"I can see the head! Just a bit more, just a bit more!" The doctor said. Hermione pushed with all her might as the doctor gripped the baby and began to help Hermione by easing him out of her. Hermione opened her mouth in a silent "Oh" as the baby was pulled from her. Isaac pushed away her hair and whipped the sweat from her brow. Hermione opened her eyes and looked at him, smiling. The doctor said, "It's a boy!", holding him up for the room to see. What hair he had was platinum blond, and he was beautiful. Hermione reached out for him. The nurse placed a blanket on Hermione's stomach and placed the baby on top of the blanket. The nurse whipped away the blood as Hermione cooed over the child. Isaac looked a little out of place, but tried his best to give Hermione support.

"What are you going to name him?" Isaac asked as the nurse took him away to be weighed and measured.

"I don't know… I want something modern, but something that not a lot of people have either…" Hermione said, her eyes never leaving her son. Isaac watched in fascination, this love that already sparked between Hermione and the baby.

"I'm sure something will come to you." Isaac said. He sat on the bed and looked about the room, at the nurses cleaning up and the doctor who was checking vitals and things of that sort.

"Yes, I'm sure something will." Hermione said. She laid her head back, resting. She closed her eyes as Isaac took her hand and rubbed his thumb across her skin. The nurse came back with her son; Hermione took him and held him close to her. She breathed in, and then out. Isaac gripped her hand slightly and touched the baby's cheek. For the first time in a long time, Hermione Granger felt at home with a family all her own.

Dumbledore paced his study. He had sent out the note just a few seconds before, but he knew that once it had been received, the person would get here any second. The fireplace began to glow an emerald green, and Dumbledore grew even more anxious. The fire burst and out stepped Draco Malfoy. He had changed, but yet he hadn't. His hair was longer and his eyes were bloodshot, he was paler and thinner, but other than that he still had the Malfoy air about him. Dumbledore sighed and stepped around to his desk.

"You called for me, Dumbledore?" Malfoy said. He half smiled half smirked and Dumbledore became irked with him.

"I thought you might care to know that your son has been born." Dumbledore said, rage filling his voice.

Malfoy blinked and became expressionless. He had been sober for the better part of a month, and this was the highlight of his new life as of yet. "I beg your pardon?"

"Your son is born, Malfoy! Do you realize what this means?" Dumbledore placed his palms on the desk and looked at Malfoy over his half moon spectacles.

"Well, I've lost the meaning of a lot of things lately-"

"Yes, I know!" Dumbledore interrupted. "It means Mr. Malfoy, that the world shall never be the same again! Did you ever wonder why your father made you have sex with Miss Granger?"

Malfoy looked at Dumbledore in part amazement, part anger. "How did you know-?"

"I know a lot more than you think Malfoy!" Dumbledore moved from his desk, around the perimeter and up to Draco. "Your father and the Dark Lord, thought that if they forced a child between you and Miss Granger, than it would be in their hands to kill both of them! You just happened to have it cross your mind to make sure that that didn't happen now didn't you! Malfoy, the reason you are even a father is because the Dark Lord wants you to kill Hermione, to prove that you are the heartless being that your father was supposed to raise you to be! The Dark Lord wants this to be your test, your initiation to the inner circle. Don't you see it now? You made a child for the reason of killing him and his mother! It will open a path for killing Harry as well, which just makes everything so grand and wonderful."

Draco looked at Dumbledore like he was crazy. "Listen, I haven't seen or even heard of Hermione for the past five months. I haven't heard of any initiation from my father, and there isn't any test. I don't know why my father made me do it, but he wouldn't make me kill a Malfoy, no matter who he came from."

"Are you sure about that?" Dumbledore said, wisdom leaking from his pores and infiltrating the room. "Mr. Malfoy, for your protection, I must ask that you never come here again and also that you never speak to or see Miss Granger again. I fear the consequences may be too deep for anyone here to handle."

"But it's my kid too! I don't want him dead! I want to be a father like any other here, who are you to tell me what I'm capable of? What if I want to be with Hermione? I want to… I mean, we have a baby…" Draco's shoulders fell in his weak contradiction to Dumbledore. Dumbledore looked at Draco and then he sighed saying, "I believe that that position has already been filled Mr. Malfoy. You don't even know her, she doesn't know you. It would take a miracle for things to ever be ok between the two of you."

"Already filled?" Draco said. He began to breathe heavily. His heart began to tighten and his ears throb. He felt, jealous, almost.

Draco turned on his heel and walked back to the fireplace. Dumbledore was still talking as he threw some floo powder into the flames and said, "Already taken?" once again. The flames grew taller as Draco stepped in and said quiet enough so Dumbledore couldn't hear, "St. Mungo's."

Isaac had left to get something to eat, and Hermione took this time to feed her son. She still hadn't named him, but she knew that the name would come quickly enough. Hermione smiled as the baby boy began to eat. She cooed at him and rubbed his cheek. His eyes began to droop as he ate more and more and Hermione eased him away, rocking him gently and covering herself up again. He closed his eyes, his lashes just resting on the apples of his cheeks when a nurse came in. She knocked first and then she came around to where Hermione's bed was. Hermione continued to rock the baby as the nurse said that someone was here to see her, said that it was family. Shaking her head yes that it was okay for the person to come in, Hermione wondered who it could be.

The nurse returned and held open the door. Hermione almost dropped her baby as Draco Malfoy stepped into the room. She took in his long hair and skinny face and wondered if he had ever stopped destroying himself. Draco closed the door as the nurse left and stood awkwardly at the foot of the bed. Hermione clutched her son close to her. Both of them stared at each other, neither knowing what to say.

Draco shifted feet and said, "May I hold him?"

Hermione shook her head no and Draco nodded his head.

"May I look at him then please?"

Against her better judgment, Hermione nodded her head yes. Draco stepped lightly around the bed to where she was lying. He moved the blanket so he could see his face better and looked down at his son. He stroked his cheek and spoke in a different language to him. Hermione shifted away and said, "What are you saying?"

"Sorry, I was speaking French. It's what my grandmother always used to speak to me while I was growing up. I guess it was just an old habit…" Draco said standing straight. He moved to a table at the other side of the room and touched some of the lilies that stood in a vase. He fingered a card that said, "Love, Isaac" on it and felt like tearing it off.

"Hermione, I want to help you with the baby. I want to be with you." Draco said turning around. Hermione laughed when she heard this. Her eyes closed and she said, "I'm sorry, but did you just say that you want to be with me? Malfoy, you don't even know me! I don't know you, it would never work."

"Please, will you give me a chance?" Draco said. He stepped up to the bed. Hermione looked down at her baby who had begun to fuss. She gently rocked him again and quieted her voice.

Hermione thought about everything she could be risking with this. She thought about how much her son would need his father and also that Draco Malfoy really wasn't that bad looking. But then she remembered Isaac. Sweet Isaac who had always been there.

"I'll try. But one mishap and that's it. I'm doing this for our son…" Hermione said looking at the door.

Draco smiled and said, "Thank you." Hermione looked at him and nodded. Draco took it as a hint to leave and so silently he left. He was gone as he had always been before. Hermione settled back on the bed, rocking her son and thinking.

The door opened again and Hermione looked up to see Isaac. He had two water bottles in his hands and a plate of food. He placed them on the bedside table and sat on the edge of the bed. He kissed Hermione's forehead and asked her how she was. She said she was ok, but could be better, that she was terribly hungry. Isaac smiled and handed her a plate. Hermione grimaced but Isaac said, "You try finding something good in this place!" Hermione chuckled and ate the food anyways.

As she was eating Isaac asked, "So, have you thought of a name?"

Hermione chewed her food and then she shook her head yes. Isaac waited as Hermione took a sip of water and said, "I think I'll name him Riley. Riley Tristan Parks."

Isaac smiled and stuck his hand in his pocket. He fingered a tiny ring and then pulled his hand out, the ring hidden in his palm.

"Yes, I think that that suits him just fine." Isaac said, kissing Hermione softly on the lips. Hermione smiled and placed the baby on the bed between her legs so that she could eat. Isaac touched the baby's head and smiled at him.

"Riley."


	13. We Never Change

Disclaimer-I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters. Those, unfortunately, belong to J.K. Rowling……

Chapter Thirteen: We Never Change

I want to live life, and never be cruel  
I wanna live life, and be good to you

And I wanna fly  
I'll never come down  
And live my life  
And have friends around

We never change do we no, no  
We never learn do we  
So I wanna live, in a wooden house  
I wanna live life, and always be true  
I wanna live life, and be good to you

Lucius Malfoy stood in an inner circle of Death Eaters. They were all cloaked and masked, but Lucius knew who each one was. The Dark Lord was lounging on his throne like chair, his left hand to his temple, rubbing at the glaring white skin.

Suddenly, Voldemort stood and glided down the stony steps leading up to him. He walked among the Death Eaters and stopped before Lucius. Malfoy felt his heart catch in his throat, but he swallowed, forcing his fear out of his mind. Voldemort closed in on Lucius, but Malfoy stood his ground as the Dark Lord circled him. He clucked his tongue and finally as he reached the front of Malfoy said, "I fear that we have been betrayed, Lucius."

"What do you mean, My Lord?" Lucius asked, piercing Voldemort with his silver eyes behind his mask.

Voldemort turned away and glided about the circle. Then he was at Malfoy again, his wand drawn and pointed at Lucius's heart. "Your son is very softhearted it would appear. I know that the prophecy is true, we made it happen. I also know that the mudblood will never give up the child without a fight and your son would probably do anything to see that they weren't hurt. It complicates things, Lucius. Now I have nothing to scare the Order…"

"My Lord, why not just capture Potter? We haven't tried that, and I believe that the prophecy said that we can defeat them without the child." Lucius said. Voldemort looked into Malfoy's eyes, his red snake like eyes reading every thought in Malfoy's heart.

"I have no use for soft hearts, Malfoy. I think that I made that clear upon entry to this group. Now all of these men have been loyal to me, never wavering or trying to get me to see things in their perspective. They are the loyal ones here Malfoy, and I believe that your time just may very well be up."

Voldemort raised his wand once more. Malfoy had no time to register all of what had been said as green jets of light flew at him. He collapsed on the ground before he could raise his own wand. Those silvery eyes turned grey as two other outer circle Death Eaters took both of his arms and dragged him away, placing him in a room where someone would come and fix him up for his funeral.

The inner circle had not moved; they were used to this sort of thing. Voldemort continued on as though he had never even killed a fly, talking of how he would kill Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy's son…

Hermione was released from the hospital the next day. She could walk, though it hurt at times, but Hermione was strong. She never wavered. Isaac held Riley as they apparated to Diagon Alley.

"Remind me why we had to come here?" Isaac said, as Hermione gripped his arm and led him in a certain direction.

"I need a wand. I lost my first one and I think that it's broken anyways, or someone else has found it, and I'm tired of using everyone else's in times of need." Hermione said. She glanced at her son who was asleep in Isaac's arms and continued walking.

"Ollivander's then?" Isaac asked. Hermione nodded and Isaac led the way.

Hermione looked at all the faces of the witches and wizards that were roaming the alley. She looked into the shops, at the excitement on the boy's faces when they passed the quidditch shop and the couples that sat outside the ice cream parlor. As they neared the shop, Hermione began to feel funny. She asked for Riley, who was handed to her with no delay. They stepped into the shop and both of them were bombarded with the musty smell of an old attic. Not exactly the best thing in the world. Isaac stood behind Hermione as she walked to the counter and rang the little bell. There was a commotion from the other end of one of the aisles and a little old man with wild hair flew into vision. He was standing on a ladder that reached as high as the shelving went. He was wearing old tattered clothes that looked to be something from a couple of centuries ago. Hermione glanced back at Isaac who raised his eyebrows.

"I knew you would be coming back, Miss Granger." Ollivander said. Hermione shifted uncomfortably as she felt Isaac stare at the back of her head. She could almost hear his thought process. "But I never expected it to be with a baby."

"I need a new wand." Hermione stated as she heard the door behind her open and then close. She knew it was Isaac; she didn't have to turn around. Mr. Ollivander climbed down the steps of the ladder and went to another aisle. He returned with three boxes stating, "I wonder what happened to your other wand, Miss Granger."

Hermione shrugged her shoulders wishing he would stop calling her that. Ollivander took the top box and opened it, removing from it a slender wand made of mahogany. He held it out to Hermione who took it with her free hand. She balanced Riley in one arm as she waved the wand. A stack of papers to her left burst into flame and Mr. Ollivander snatched the wand away. He set the fire out and replaced the wand. He tossed the box over his shoulder where it fell on the desk behind him. He took out the second wand, holding it by the tip to Hermione. She gripped it slightly and waved it reluctantly. Nothing happened at first but then Hermione looked at Mr. Ollivander to see that his hair was growing long, down to the ground. And it was pink; bubblegum pink. Hermione placed the wand down and stared at the old man. He gave her a curious look before he looked at the mirror on the wall next to him. The old man took his own wand and pointed it at his head, watching as his hair returned to normal.

Ollivander tossed the wand and its box back behind him where it landed with the other and took the final box. It was ornate, wooden and carved with intricate designs. Hermione looked at it curiously as Ollivander began to speak.

"I never wanted to give this wand away, for I knew that then it would be the time for war. The real thing, Miss Granger. I remember the first time you stepped into my shop. I knew that this wand was made for you, and I stopped it, giving you another instead. This wand is powerful, Miss Granger. I do not pretend that it will not cause harm, even death." Ollivander held it out to her. Hermione reached for it, staring at the handle which had a carving of a lily in it. "This wand is made of willow, infused with a lily and a core of a phoenix. One of a kind and one that took a great deal of difficulty to make."

Breathing deeply, Hermione took the wand. When nothing happened she looked up at Ollivander to see that there was a light glowing around her. Riley shifted in her arms and suddenly warmth spread throughout her entire body. Ollivander took the wand from her gently this time and placed it back in its box. He charged the money to Hermione's Gringotts account and wrapped it in brown paper. Hermione took the package and left the store with a thank you. She looked out in the street for Isaac though she knew he wouldn't be there. She went a bench and sat down. She laid Riley on her legs and unwrapped the wand. She threw the paper away and placed the box in the pocket of her robes. She held the wand in her right hand and took Riley in her left. She turned left and imagined the gates of Hogwarts.

Diagon Alley began to fade as Hermione and her son were whisked away to the great stone castle. Two giant stone gargoyles guarded the entrance. Hermione looked up at them and held Riley close to her. She shook her head and was just about to step inside the grounds when her name was called out to her. "Hermione!"

Draco Malfoy ran up to her, panting and gasping for breath. He doubled over, trying to catch his breath as Hermione waited.

"What, Malfoy?"

"I need to tell you, something very important." Draco said. He stood straight and pressed his fist into his side. "Hermione, you and our son are in danger. I need you to promise me that you will not leave the Hogwarts' grounds under any circumstances. Please, promise me this."

Hermione looked into his eyes and said, "Why should I trust you?"

"Hermione, there isn't any time for this! Voldemort has sent word to my mother of my father's death. I know that soon it will be me and then he will make me take you and our son. Hermione, the reason why I had to do what I did was so that Voldemort could hold something over the Order. Our son is the key to his victory in his eyes. I need you to promise that you won't leave, wait till I come back for you." Draco said all of this, slowly advancing closer to her. He touched her cheek and then their sons and said, "It's for your own good."

Draco touched her chin and gently eased her chin up so she was looking at him. She nodded her head yes and sighed. She looked at Riley and then back at Draco and said, "I named him."

Surprised Draco smiled a bit awkwardly and nodded his head. Hermione then said, "His name's Riley."

"Riley." Draco said looking down at him. "Not something I would have chosen, but it suits him."

They both nodded and Hermione stepped away towards the castle. "I must go. I promise I'll stay here."

"Thank you," was all Draco said as he apparated away. Hermione turned back to the castle and walked up the sprawling green lawns to the great oak doors. She stepped inside and closed the heavy door behind her. The students were all out and about, walking with their friends and laughing and talking. Hermione slipped through a break in the crowd and made her way up the stairs to Dumbledore's office.

A stone gargoyle stood at the entrance, his wings spread as if to protect the person within. Hermione said the password, and watched at the figure sprang to life and stepped aside. Hermione looked down at Riley and walked past the gargoyle and up the winding steps to Dumbledore's office. She knocked on the door and waited till she was called in.

Dumbledore sat behind his desk. He looked as if he had been waiting for her. Hermione breathed deeply, a new habit she had acquired and stood before Dumbledore. They looked at each other, both afraid of what could happen, but only one knew of the true fear.

"Miss Granger, I believe you have been found." Hermione furrowed her brows together. She opened and closed her mouth several times but no words came to her. Dumbledore stood and walked to her, meaning to bring her solace. "I think that it is time for you to go into true hiding. Go to a place where no one can find you, a place where you are hidden even from yourself. You and your son will live normal lives as though none of this has happened."

"What? What's happened? Dumbledore, I don't understand, what are you talking about?" Hermione said. She felt protective and fierce. Dumbledore's eyes flashed red for a moment and Hermione's breath caught in her throat. She knew those eyes; she had seen them so many times in her nightmares. Calmly, Hermione shook her head yes, she turned on her heel and headed towards the door. Hermione stretched her hand out to the golden knob and heard, "Oh, and Granger?"

Hermione turned at being called by her surname by a man who was once so kind. Now, Dumbledore looked old and hard, a ghost of what he had been before. "Don't think about leaving. I know this castle better than the back of my hand; you will never escape me child."

Dumbledore smiled an eerie smile and Hermione turned away as tears welled up in her eyes. She left the room and fled down the stairs. She clutched her son close to her heart and ran until she was at the Ravenclaw portrait. Hermione panted and waited until a pixie like girl sauntered into view. She looked at Hermione's ruffled hair and haggard appearance and sighed. "Don't even talk honey; I'll let you in on a freebie." Hermione almost smiled but remembered why she was even here and hurried through the portrait. The common room was deserted, which Hermione found odd. She saw some stairs and began to climb them in an attempt to find him. She opened the first door, but they turned out to be first year boys. They laughed and threw pillows at each other, acting like complete imbeciles. Hermione continued on but didn't open any of the doors until she reached the seventh one. She placed her ear to the wood and listened, but it was quiet, save for one person. It sounded like they were crying and Hermione felt sad for them. She eased open the door and peered into the room. Whoever it was had their back turned to her, but Hermione knew who it was. she stepped inside and closed the door behind her.

Isaac turned at the sound of the lock and stood when he saw Hermione. His eyes were wild and his fists were clenched.

"Isaac, I need your help." Hermione said taking a step towards him. Isaac took a step back, a hurt look spreading across his features. "Isaac, I-"

"You lied to me, Hermione." Isaac said softly.

"I had no choice! You don't understand, Isaac,-" Hermione began, but Isaac cut her off.

"No, I don't understand, but Hermione, I thought you loved me, I thought that we loved each other! Why would you lie to me about your name? What else have you lied to me about?" Isaac yelled. Riley squirmed in Hermione's arms, and opened his mouth, releasing a small cry.

"I lied about my name because I'm wanted dead Isaac!" Hermione yelled. She began to lightly bounce Riley in her arms and then spoke quieter to Isaac. "I did it because I'm in constant danger, I don't have a life anymore being Hermione Granger."

"Who's Riley's father?" Isaac asked suddenly.

"What?" Hermione asked. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Just please, tell me." Isaac said. His blue eyes burned into Hermione's soul. Hermione stumbled backwards but remained standing.

"Draco Malfoy." Hermione said before she thought of the seriousness of the situation. Isaac narrowed his eyes and stood up straight.

"You slept with a Death Eater? No wonder no one trusts you Hermione! You fucking slept with the enemy!" Isaac gripped her upper arms, screaming into her face.

Hermione broke away and pushed Isaac with her free hand. "I didn't have a choice, Isaac! I didn't want this to happen and I never wanted to have a baby this soon, but I got over it! I've embraced who I am, and I don't need an eighteen year old boy to tell me what to do! I thought you were different Isaac, I thought you were something special. But I've come to find that I'm usually wrong these days."

With that Hermione strode out of the room, down the stairs and out of the common room. She left to her own rooms in a fury of tears. She had no one now. She had no where to go, and she had no idea where Draco was. She took Riley and went to her bedroom. She tried to be strong and be a good mother. She nursed Riley and then laid him on the bed, surrounding him with pillows so he couldn't fall. She changed clothes and then removed one side of the pillows and lay next to him. Hermione stroked his cheek as he closed his eyes and began to sleep.

The night bore itself into her room, casting shadows everywhere and making Hermione for the first time in a long time afraid of the dark. She closed her eyes and tried to push the fear out of her, but to no prevail. After hours of lying awake, Hermione drifted off to sleep.

Hermione woke with a start when there was a sound at the window. She looked at Riley and saw that he was still sleeping. Hermione looked for her robes and quickly got out bed to get her wand from the pocket. She took the wand out of the box just as the window opened and someone stepped into the room. Hermione stood stock still as whomever it was stepped inside and closed the window. It looked to a man because of how nig he appeared, and Hermione felt her fear coming to her in new waves, crashing upon her like she was a barrier between the ocean and the beach.

"Hermione?" The voice said. Hermione nearly cried in relief. She knew that voice.

"Draco?" Hermione asked. She felt tears brimming in her eyes as Draco Malfoy stepped out of the shadows and closer to her. She saw his face and the worried expression he held on his features and immediately, she collapsed into him and began to cry. Draco wrapped his arms around her and held her close to him, burying his face into her hair.

"I need to get you out of here. There is so much that has happened. Dumbledore, he isn't Dumbledore Hermione, he's been captured and now a Death Eater is in his place, acting like him. I need to get you to the Order; I know that they will protect you." Draco said. He waved his wand and all of Hermione's stuff was whisked to them in the trunk.

"But what about Riley?" Hermione said, going to her son and carefully taking him in her arms. "Won't they try to take him?"

"Hermione, I don't know. I just need you to trust me, please; I don't want to have to worry about you here. Just come with me, I know that the Order will let you in. All you have to do is say that you'll help them fight, then they'll say no because you just had a baby." Draco said. He brought his eyebrows together in frustration and said, "Hermione, please. I want you to live. And I know you'll live if you're with the Order."

Hermione shook her head yes and took her wand. She changed her clothes with a quick spell and grabbed a blanket from the bed, wrapping it around Riley.

"We have to fly for the first part out of here, you remember we can't apparate?" Draco asked as Hermione nodded yes and stuck her wand in a robe that she had slung around her shoulders. "Here, hold Riley for me real fast," Hermione said, handing Riley to Draco who took him and held him with an uncertain look on his face. Hermione pushed her arms into the sleeves of the robe and buttoned the second button to make sure it stayed on. She took Riley back from Draco who in turn shrunk her trunk and placed it in his own pocket.

Just as they were climbing onto the broom that Malfoy had left out on the window sill, there was a loud pounding from the portrait. Hermione and Draco stiffened. Snapping out of his trance, Draco ushered Hermione onto the broom and told her to be as quiet as possible. Hermione in turn placed a silencing spell on Riley so he couldn't give them away. She climbed onto the broom, wrapping Riley in a blanket than she tied over her left shoulder and under her right one, creating a type of sling to hold him with. Draco climbed in front of her as the door was blown off of its hinges. Draco took off just as three people busted down the bedroom door. Hermione clutched to Draco's waist and looked down at Riley who had opened his mouth and appeared to be screaming. Hermione touched his cheek with one of her hands, saying "Shh" as Draco flew them higher and higher towards the Hogwarts gate. Once they reached the gate however, he didn't land, but continued flying.

"What are you doing?" Hermione yelled over the sound of the wind. "I thought we were going to apparate at the gates!"

"It's too dangerous right now to land! I'm going to get us to a secluded area so we can apparate safely!" Draco yelled back to her, turning his head slightly so Hermione saw his profile. Hermione nodded her head ok and grasped his waist tighter.

The village was a mere blur as Draco took them over the woods and past the shrieking shack, towards the forbidden forest on the other side of the houses. Hermione leaned her head on Malfoy's back awkwardly from Riley being between them. Draco glanced back at her but continued on, ignoring the spark it caused in his heart.

Two hours later, Draco took them down gradually, lowering them cautiously into the woods. He landed softly as Hermione opened her eyes and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She blinked and tried to remember when she had fallen asleep, but decided it was pointless. She dismounted the broom and held Riley close to her as Draco took her hand and led her through the brush.

"Where-" Hermione began but Draco turned suddenly and pressed a finger to her lips. He motioned for her to stay quiet and to follow him. Hermione nodded her head and continued on behind Draco. They walked silently for about twenty minutes until Draco stopped suddenly and took out his wand. He turned to Hermione pulled her close to him and said, "We're leaving. No sudden movements and we'll make it out of here alive."

Hermione looked around Draco and saw a whole line of Death Eaters closing the distance between them. A warm feeling started to flow through Hermione and when she looked back to Draco she was startled to see that he wasn't there anymore. She was about to say something when she noticed that her body wasn't there either. Silently and slyly, Draco pushed her up against the side of a tree. At first she felt different about it, but thought herself stupid afterwards. Riley squirmed in between them and Hermione could feel his little hands push at her stomach. She adjusted him as Draco leaned back a little so he wasn't so cramped. Hermione felt Draco's warm breath on her face and looked up tried to imagine what his facial expression was. It was impossible what with the Death Eaters coming closer and closer to them.

Draco wrapped his arms around Hermione's waist tighter, picking her up slightly. He turned to the left all the while imagining Twelve Grimmauld Place. Draco, Hermione and Riley were materialized out of the woods and standing before the old house in a matter of seconds. Draco took Hermione's hand and led her into the building quickly. They entered the house and closed the door behind them, Draco locking all the locks before turning back to Hermione. They were met with the angry stares of twenty witches and wizards, each one assaulting them for a different reason.


	14. We Belong Together

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, just the things you don't recognize (If there are any) and anything else…

Chapter Fourteen: We Belong Together

What good is a life, with no one to share,  
the light of the moon, the honor of a swear.  
we can try to live the way in which you speak,  
taste the milk of your mother earth's love,  
spread the word of consciencness you see,  
we are everything we need

"What are you doing here?"

Hermione turned to look at the red haired man who had once been her best friend. She opened her mouth to speak but stopped. She wasn't welcome here that much was for certain. Ron Weasley took a step towards her and looked down at her accusingly. Hermione stood to her full height and said,

"I was under the impression that the Order needed more fighters. I'm sorry that I wasn't here in the beginning, but I am now. Isn't that what matters most?" Hermione said. She hugged Riley to her. She felt Draco shift uncomfortably behind her.

Ron turned to the other members of the Order who were looking at Hermione like she was crazy, which Hermione reminded herself she probably was.

Then just as Hermione was beginning to lose hope in there ever being anyone there for her to rely on, Harry stepped forward. He didn't say anything just came and took Ron's place before Hermione. Hermione looked up into his emerald eyes and tried to express her sincerity through her own eyes. Harry touched her face and then he touched Riley's cheek and said, "I want you to stay. Maybe later you can help us fight, but for now, we need the most help here with one another."

Hermione released a deep sigh of relief and smiled as tears began to leak out of the corners of her eyes and drip down her cheeks. She turned to Draco who had been silent all of this time and gave him a bear-like hug. He wrapped his arms around her waist and said, "Think of me often." Hermione stepped back out of his embrace and gave him a quizzical look.

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.

Draco shrugged his shoulders and stuffed his hands into his pockets. "I'm not welcome here, no matter how many times I've tried to prove that I'm here to help."

"Maybe you just need to stick around for them to really believe you." Hermione said. She reached out and touched his arm. Draco looked down at her hand and then into her eyes. "Please, stay here for us?"

Maybe it was the way she looked in the dim lights, her eyes bright and shinning as though a spotlight had hit them. It could be that she had invited _him_ of all people to stay with her… What ever it was, Draco shook his head yes and took her hand. They turned back to see that now it was just Harry, Ron and Professor Snape.

Snape sneered at the couple and turned on his heel. He disappeared down a staircase to which Hermione remembered led to the kitchen. Ron looked at them both impassively. Something Hermione found strange. She looked away as Harry motioned for them to follow him up the main stairs to their new bedroom. At the middle of the steps Hermione looked up to see the Weasley twins looking down at her from the landing. She just gripped Draco's hand tighter and looked away. They passed the twins and at the top of the stairs took an immediate left to another door. Harry opened it to reveal more steps.

Turning he said apologetically to Hermione, "I'm sorry there are so many steps, but this is the last room we have, well, the only room that is safe enough for someone to live in." Hermione nodded her head and said "OK" as she allowed Harry to lead her and Draco up the steps. At the top of these stairs was a long corridor with doors on either side. Harry took them to a door that was second to last on the right side and opened the door. He stood aside and let the couple pass through before him. Hermione looked at the bed in the corner and the wardrobe that looked to be from the sixteenth century, all worn and old. She turned to Harry who had stayed in the doorway and said her thanks. Draco was silent but he turned to Harry and nodded yes after Hermione said thank you.

"Dinner will be later, but I understand if you don't want to eat with everyone just yet." Harry said. He closed the door and left Hermione and Draco to their selves.

Hermione took Riley out of the sling and placed him on the middle of the bed. Almost immediately he began to fuss. Draco looked at the baby with an expression of wonder and annoyance. Hermione untied the sling and climbed onto the bed, lying next to Riley and rubbing his tummy. She took her pointer finger and placed it at his lips. Riley began to suck at her finger telling Hermione that he was hungry. Without thinking about Draco being in the room, Hermione undid the button of the cloak she was wearing and threw it to the end of the bed. She sat up and undid the buttons of her shirt.

Draco stared until he realized how awkward it was. He took Hermione's trunk from his pocket and returned it to its normal size. Hermione took Riley in her arms and began to nurse him. She looked up to see that Draco was concentrating as hard as he could on empting her trunk and putting all her clothes in the wardrobe. But with magic, that job was soon over and Draco had nothing else to do. He sighed and let his arms hang loosely at his side. Hermione smiled and bent her knees, hiding Riley and her skin from Draco.

"It's ok to look, you know." Hermione said. Draco turned, noticing that she had concealed herself and sat in the chair next to the bed. He reached out and touched the top of Riley's head.

"Hermione, I want to tell you something." Draco said looking down at the bedspread. He stuck his finger in one of the holes and picked at the fabric.

"What is it?"

At first Draco shuffled and seemed really embarrassed with whatever it was that was on his mind. But then as his confidence grew so did his voice. "I want to be here for you, you know that right? I want to be a father, surprising as that may seem, but it's the truth. There's something that I'm going to say that will throw you completely off balance probably but it has to be said sometime."

Hermione switched sides with Riley and recovered her breast. Draco tried to not look but couldn't help it. Once he had seen though, he couldn't help the blush that crept into his cheeks. Hermione smiled again as Draco bent his head and then he suddenly looked up at her. His gaze was piercing and intense. Hermione looked back at him with what she felt was the same intensity and began to blush slightly. Draco looked at her lips and then back at her. He leaned forward, his butt coming off of the chair. He stared deep into her eyes as he neared her. Hermione began to breathe a little heavier as Draco got closer and closer. Draco stopped when he had come about an inch from her face. Hermione closed her eyes and tried to relax. Draco waited for her to shove him away from her, disgusted that he would even attempt to do what he was. He got awkwardly onto the bed, his knees straddling Hermione's. He leaned in to kiss her when all of a sudden, Riley began to cry.

Draco leaned back as Hermione opened her eyes and looked down at her son. His arms were pushing at Hermione so she took him and held him out to Draco. Draco looked at him with a "what?" look and leaned back on the bed. Hermione held him out to Draco with a please look on her features. Draco took him and placed him in the crook of his arms. He got up from the bed and began to walk around the room. He didn't know where he had gotten this bout of parenting, but he knew that he liked it. Hermione stood and buttoned the middle buttons of her shirt. She went to the only other door in the room and opened it. It was a bathroom. Hermione went to Draco and said, "I think I'm going to take a bath. Do you want me to take Riley with me, or do you want to keep him and I'll bathe him later?"

"I'll do it." Draco said. Hermione looked at him and blinked a couple of times. She nodded her head and went into the bathroom closing the door behind her.

"Mummy's not in a very good mood tonight, is she Riley?" Draco said to the baby. The child looked up and smiled, grabbing at his foot. Draco looked at the child's eyes memorizing their brown color and marveling at the blond in his hair. Draco went to the bed and lay down. He put Riley on his stomach so that they were stomach to stomach and began to rub his back. Riley's breaths became patterned and Draco accioed a light blanket from the wardrobe. He laid it across his son and continued to rub his back.

Meanwhile in the shower Hermione was hurrying as fast as she could. She didn't know why but she felt as though maybe Draco would take the baby and bring him to Voldemort. She quickly washed her hair and body and turned off the water. She got out and wrapped a towel around herself and opened the door to see Draco and Riley lying there. Riley was sleeping on his stomach and it appeared that Draco had been about to fall asleep until Hermione came out in nothing but a towel. His eyes widened and he immediately turned away. Hermione took some clothes and went back into the bathroom cursing herself for being so stupid. She laid the clothes out on the counter and took her toothbrush from her traveling bag. She started the brush her teeth while looking for a rubber band and brush in the bag. She spit out the toothpaste and rinsed off the brush before putting it back in the bag and brushing her hair. Hermione's mind began to wander to Draco and Riley. When she had walked out there and saw them lying together on the bed it was like they were actually a family, just lying around waiting for it to be bedtime. Hermione gathered her hair and put it up in a messy bun before she began to get dressed in her pajamas.

Taking her bag of stuff, Hermione took one last look at herself in the mirror, hung up her towel and left the bathroom. Draco had one arm lazily cast over his eyes, blocking out the light from the lamp next to the bed. Hermione tossed her bag into her trunk and closed the wardrobe doors. She stood at the foot of the bed before deciding that she really didn't care where everyone slept and climbed up next to Draco. He opened one eye as she climbed under the blankets and settled down.

"I'm going to take a shower." Draco said. Hermione nodded her head and took Riley laying him on his back in front of her. Draco got up from the bed and got his clothes and went into the bathroom.

Hermione looked at the room around her. She didn't understand how things had gotten so out of hand, but she was happy to be here, where she felt she had a chance.

Though she desperately wished to stay awake, her eyes were against her. They felt as heavy as lead, inviting her to succumb to the sleepiness that was overtaking her. Hermione closed her eyes as she let out a deep breath. Almost immediately she was asleep, dreaming the sweetest dreams she had ever thought of…

Draco stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist. He raked his fingers through his wet hair and shook his head a couple of times, shaking the water out. He stepped up to the counter and took his toothbrush and began to brush his teeth. When he was done he spat the paste into the sink rinsing it down with the water. He tossed his toothbrush back into his bag and took out his hairbrush brushing his hair rather haphazardly before tossing it too into the bag. He dressed into his pajama bottoms and left the bathroom, leaving the towel on the floor along with little pools of water from where he had dried off.

He paused when he came to the bedroom and dropped his things onto the chair before the bed. He squeezed onto the little space left between Riley and the side of the bed and tried to sleep. After much rolling around and grunting and grumbling, Hermione woke up. She merely took Riley and gently picked him up. She transfigured a little table into a crib and laid Riley into it. She walked back to the bed and yanked the blanket out from underneath Draco and walked back to Riley. She covered him up again and walked to the bed, collapsing on top of it. She nestled up and took the covers covering herself. She opened her eyes briefly to look at Draco before she turned her back to him and placed the pillow under her head.

A little scared of what could happen if he made anymore noise, Draco simply laid his head down and closed his eyes. He rustled a bit, trying to get comfortable. His legs jerked around moving the blankets around and twisting them up around his legs. Hermione opened her eyes and bounced around as Draco tossed to his other side and then tossed onto his back, letting out a loud sigh and muttering about how uncomfortable the mattress was.

"Malfoy, if you don't just lie down and sleep I swear I will curse this mattress up your arse and then you can tell me how uncomfortable it is." Hermione said, not even moving to look at him. Draco immediately stopped moving. Hermione closed her eyes and moved slightly before she stopped and started to drift off to sleep.

"Goodnight…"

"Goodnight."

"Hermione?"

"….What?"

"I never got to tell you what I wanted to earlier…"

"Uh huh…and?"

"And what?"

"Are you going to tell me or just tell me that you didn't tell me?"

"I'm not going to tell you if you're going to act like that."

"Oh, for heavens sake!" Hermione said sitting up. She threw back the covers and turned to look at Draco who had moved under the covers until only his eyes and top of his head were showing. "What is it?"

Draco's eyes widened and then he said, "I think I'll tell you tomorrow when you're in a better mood."

Hermione gave him an are-you-serious? look and fell back onto the bed. She lay on her back and didn't even bother covering up for Draco had taken all the covers again anyways. She closed her eyes and blocked out Draco who was now humming a song. After what felt like an eternity, Draco's song ended and he began to snore softly. Hermione looked at him to see that he was facing her. The bottoms of his lashes were resting on the tops of his cheeks giving him an almost angel like appearance. Hermione closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

As they slept, Draco reached out and grasped Hermione, pulling her closer to him. He draped his arm across her and both of them slept on peacefully.

To anyone else who had perchance stumbled on them sleeping together they would comment on how cute they looked together. They would whisper as they left again at how much Draco and Hermione belonged together…


	15. Your Smile's a Drug

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter…………………………….

Chapter Fifteen: Your Smile's A Drug

Let's say it'll be a right, it'll be a risky bet  
'Cause I'm about as good as I'm gonna get  
Oh, these chains are tight  
And the courage that I showed, left a long time ago  
Just so you know

When you're tired, actin' tough  
You only take two and a quarter to get fucked up  
When you say you're in love, you just sound like you're giving up…

One year later…

Hermione Granger laughed and clapped her hands together willing her son to come closer. Riley wobbled but kept his balance as he left the table and tried to get to Hermione. He smiled showing two little teeth in the front of his mouth. Just as he began to loose his balance for the second time Hermione reached out and grabbed him pulling him close while laughing. She leaned away from him slightly and began tickling him ferociously.

Riley's mouth opened letting out a mirthless laugh, his eyes watering from the laughter. Hermione stopped tickling him and scooped him up into her arms again. Riley took her necklace and pulled at it hard.

"Don't pull at that, Riley, honey. That hurts mummy." Hermione unclasped Riley's fist over the gold chain and took his hands, before standing and letting him lead her out of the room. She took small steps as Riley leaned forward, death grips on Hermione's hands. He smiled and then he playfully screamed. There was a loud commotion from downstairs and all of a sudden, three aurors were in the hall wands withdrawn. Hermione picked up Riley, and calmly said, "There's nothing wrong, Riley and I were just playing…"

Professor Snape looked at them indifferently and stalked back down into the kitchen. The other two, Harry and Tonks, cooed at Riley before following the menopausal Snape back down into the kitchen. Hermione sighed and turned only to be met face to face with Draco.

"Whoa, I didn't know you were awake!" Hermione said, bouncing Riley as he smiled if possible harder and reached out for Draco saying, "Daddy! Daddy!" Hermione handed him over as Draco took him and tossed him into the air. He caught him and then spun in fast circles, Riley over his head. The child squealed with laughter and yet again there was a commotion from the kitchen. Only this time there was also a "sit down!" that accompanied it.

"I couldn't sleep. Besides, I'm not used to sleeping when you or Riley or both aren't there with me." Draco said placing Riley on his hip and looking at Hermione.

Hermione took a mental snapshot of Draco holding Riley. Their blond heads matched perfectly and Riley was pulling at the neck of Draco's robes. Hermione smiled and looked into Draco's silver eyes. She could get lost in those eyes.

"Really? I thought it would be easier since I wouldn't be yelling at you to stop moving."

"Well, it is nice that when I'm alone I can move as much as I want, but I've kind of gotten used to you yelling at me. It's almost as though I can't fall asleep until I hear you yell at me." Draco said, taking Riley's hands away from his neck. Riley pouted and then he looked down and fiddled with the ring that was on Draco's pinky finger.

"Well, Riley needs a nap, and I'm pretty sure that I could use one too…" Hermione said.

Draco handed Riley over and said, "Ok, I'll be there in a bit, but right now I need food, or else I might never fall back to sleep."

Taking Riley, Hermione turned as Draco bounded down the stairs. Once he had disappeared into the kitchen Hermione turned to the stairs and began to climb them to her bedroom. Riley laid his head on Hermione's shoulder and began to suck his middle and ring finger on his left hand. It was quiet upstairs, that is, until you reached the end of the corridor where the Weasley twins, Ron and Ginny were playing two on two wizard's chess.

Opening the second door, Hermione started to ascend those steps too when a sudden wave a sadness hit her. All of her friends were having a grand time in between war threats, and she was cooped up in this house. She loved being a mother, but sometimes she felt that she hated having had him so soon. Hermione hugged Riley to her just as he was about to fall asleep. The child pushed at her and said, "bad, mummy!" Hermione released him of her hug and opened their bedroom door. She closed it again and took off her robes. She undressed Riley down to his diaper since it got so hot up here and laid him in his crib. Hermione stood looking down on him and that was how Draco found them. He had started to open the door quietly, afraid that maybe they would already be asleep and Hermione might chuck something at his head if he woke her up.

"You're still up?" Draco asked, coming in and closing the door. "Hermione, what's wrong?"

Hermione shook her head no as tears welled up in her eyes. She turned her back to Draco and walked over to the bed. She lay down and pulled her knees up to her chest.

The bed sank as Draco sat on the edge. He stroked her hair and then he lay next to her, pulling her against him. Draco tucked his right arm under his head so he could be as close to her as possible. He buried his face into her hair and kissed her head. Hermione let out silent tears, cursing herself for being so stupid.

"Love, what's the matter?" Draco said. He rolled Hermione over and lay at such an angle that she couldn't get up and away from him.

"I don't want to talk about it." Hermione said, placing her hand over her eyes so she wouldn't have to look at him.

Draco pried Hermione's hands away from her face and held them in his own above her head. "Tell me."

Hermione pouted and then she turned her head to each side rubbing away the tears that were starting to dry on her cheeks. "I guess I'm just sad…"

"Ok, why?" Draco asked.

"Well… all my old friends are having a jolly time while I sit here and watch after Riley, and it's not that I don't want to, I love him more than anything, but it's just that I can't go out, I can't joke around with them any more because I feel like I have to stay here and watch Riley, and I just think it would have been better if I hadn't had him till later-"

"Hermione!" Draco said suddenly. Hermione looked up at him, her amber eyes searching his grey ones. "I can always watch Riley. He's mine too, you know…"

Hermione was quiet. She didn't want to tell him that she felt better when she was the one to watch him, because that was how it was with anyone. She didn't even let Mrs. Weasley watch him unless she was in the same room, and that was just stupid seeing as Mrs. Weasley was the last person anybody had to worry about harming anyone.

"You don't trust me do you?" Draco asked, as though he could read her thoughts.

Sheepishly, Hermione looked away and said, "It's not you, it's anybody. I just feel better when it's just me and Riley and maybe someone else."

"Hermione, please, just let me prove it to you. You can trust me."

Draco looked down at Hermione and Hermione tried to believe him. She wanted to so bad. Over the last year or so she had learned so much about Draco Malfoy. Like the fact that he didn't like peanut butter or that deep down he was really afraid to be alone in the dark. Hermione had laughed at first at the latter until Draco asked her what she was afraid of. When she told him spiders and that she was claustrophobic, Draco didn't laugh just said, "It's a good thing I didn't show you that tarantula earlier in the bathroom." Hermione had promptly almost screamed and cuddled next to Draco. She vowed never to step foot in the bathroom again until he had done a thorough search and even then she would do one herself.

Over the last few months, Draco had proven himself to be something other than what everyone thought he was. He really was a good guy, just misunderstood and now Hermione felt horrible for ever even thinking that he would kill anyone through choice. Draco had always been there for her and Riley and come to think of it, Hermione had new feelings for the ex-Slytherin Prince that consisted of a little four letter word.

"I love you, Hermione." Draco said, drawing her out of her reverie. Hermione blinked and then she smiled. She had never heard him utter those words and now they felt like music to her ears.

Draco waited for her to say it back. When she had smiled he had thought that she would say it back soon, but she had sat there, new tears in her eyes and a stupid grin on her mouth.

"I-I love you too."

Now it was Draco's turn to smile. He leaned down and kissed her. Their first true kiss and it felt wonderful.

The threat of war was growing more and more. Everyone thought by this time, everything would be normal; everything would be as it was before there was Voldemort. The Order was losing more and more fighters. Every battle there was someone lost, and it seemed to be more were being killed on the light side.

Everyday more and more Death Eaters were being initiated. The ones who had escaped now had to fear for their lives more than ever. Draco and Snape mostly hid in the Order of the Phoenix headquarters and left only when they fought which was rare now that the Order needed more of the in danger people to stay in the house and help out with communications. Hermione listened to everything and every time she had the chance, she offered her help. And every time Harry or someone would tell her no, they needed her here.

It was at a time when the Order was at their weakest that Harry actually talked to Hermione about joining them in fighting. He told her all the possibilities, everything that could happen and everything that most likely would happen. Hermione made Harry promise not to tell Draco anything as he would make her stay in the house, never letting her out of his sight again. Harry of course promised under the pretense that Hermione would only join when things were turning for the worse.

Hermione woke up one morning in mid-July and stretched. The sky was dark as it had been now for the past couple of weeks. No one was allowed outside, not even the muggles. Windows were boarded up and doors had locks starting at the top and extending all the way down to the floor. There was no way a Death Eater could get inside unless they were let in. The muggles each had a couple of wizards who moved them to a safe haven, a place that they couldn't be harmed. And some were even found to be wizards, they had just never been told. The Order rejoiced with the news that some new people were getting advanced into magic in just a few short weeks.

It was on this day in July that the world stopped turning. Hermione had gotten out of bed to a strangely eerily quiet house. The floorboards creaked and no light shone in the room except for that of the lamp by the table. Hermione walked up to Riley's crib to find him sleeping peacefully. She smoothed some hair from his face when there was a sudden banging from the landing. Hermione stopped moving, stopped breathing as footsteps were heard running down the hall along with a few curses shouted at someone or something. Hermione scooped Riley up into her arms and hid in the wardrobe just as someone burst into the room. She slid down the wall of the wardrobe and tried to hide herself among the clothes hanging there. There was rustling and then the bathroom door was thrown open. Hermione felt in her pocket for her wand but remembered that it was sitting on the bedside table. She silently cursed as the person came back out of the bathroom and moved closer towards the wardrobe. Hermione shrank as far as she could into the corner. Riley was blinking his eyes awake. He pushed at Hermione and said "Mummy!" loudly in the cramped place. The wardrobe door was thrown open and the clothes were pushed aside. Hermione blinked her eyes as two hands reached in and pulled her out. She was about to scream when a hand came over her mouth and said, "Hermione! Please, be quiet!"

Her eyes were adjusted to the sudden change of light as Hermione looked up into Draco's eyes. She began to sob and fell against him.

"What's going on? Where is everyone?" Hermione asked.

Draco opened his mouth to speak when there were new voices from the hall. Pushing Hermione up against the wall, he placed a silencing charm over Hermione and Riley. Hermione opened her mouth screaming silently as she beat against Draco's chest. He held her hands and said "I love you," before placing a kiss on her lips. Tears raced down Hermione's cheeks, she knew something was about to happen. When they broke apart, Hermione saw the tear that had leaked out of Draco's grey eyes but only for a moment as he whipped it away and placed a disallusement charm on her and Riley and then a freezing charm that would keep them in one place for a certain amount of time. Draco touched her face and pulled away. Inside Hermione was screaming. She wished she could move, she would beat him into a pulp.

"Don't ever forget me, Hermione." Draco said as he turned away.

The bedroom door was thrown open and three Death Eaters rushed in. When they saw Draco they threw stupefy curses at him. He collapsed on the floor in a heap, his grey eyes staring at where Hermione and Riley were. One Death Eater levitated his body and said, "We must get him to the Dark Lord."

Two of the Death Eaters left, taking Draco with them, but the third stayed. He removed his mask and Hermione was met with the cold eyes of a Death Eater. Of course, he had no idea that she was there, but for a moment, Hermione wasn't sure. The Death Eater walked around the room looking at things and for anyone else. He seemed satisfied with the room as he left not but a moment later.

The house was quiet as Hermione stood there. Her body was itching to move. Everything had happened so fast. She heard the front door open and then slam closed. The spell holding her and Riley was released as was the silencing spell. Hermione nearly fell when she regained movement. Riley was crying and inside it felt as though the world had stopped.

Hermione knew she had to do something. She grabbed her wand off of the bedside table and packed a small bag of essentials. She took Riley and held him close to her. He was sucking his middle and ring fingers, a blanket clutched tightly in his little fist.

"Baby, I need you to be quiet for mummy, can you do that? Promise mummy you'll be quiet until she tells you its okay to talk again?" Hermione looked deep into her son's eyes. Riley nodded his head, though Hermione knew he would most likely talk as soon as they left the room. For good measure, she placed a silencing charm back on Riley, though she felt bad for doing so.

Taking the backpack, she put Riley down where he stood stock still his fingers still in his mouth. Hermione placed the bag on her shoulders and reached down to Riley who reached up for her. When they were settled together, Hermione took her wand in her right hand and waved it at the door which opened silently. Willing herself to be calm and collected Hermione left the room and inched her way down the hall. The other doors were open and as she passed Hermione checked to make sure no one was in them either. She stepped cautiously down the steps, careful to not make a sound. Her wand was held out in front of her, ready for anything that might happen.

Reaching the second door, Hermione pressed her ear to the door. When she was as satisfied as she could be with what she didn't hear, Hermione opened the door slowly praying it wouldn't creak. The door was about three-fourths of the way open, when against her luck, it let out a horribly loud creak. It echoed in the once silent house and from the other end of the hall there was more noise. Another door opened and a wand was pointed out towards where Hermione was.

"Friend or Foe?" a voice cried out. Hermione recognized it as Ginny's.

"Friend! Ginny, it's Hermione!" Hermione called back to her.

Fred and George poked their heads out their wands withdrawn as if to make sure that it was really Hermione. They moved back into the room and then George came streaking out of the room. He grasped Hermione's hand and then tore off for the room at the end of the hall. Once they reached the room, Hermione looked around to see Ginny and Fred and Tonks. That was it. There was no one else.

"Harry?" Hermione whispered.

Ginny looked at the floor, her eyes welling with tears as she twirled the diamond ring on her left hand.

"They took him Hermione, along with Malfoy and Snape and many others who were here in hiding." Tonks said. Her face was red and swollen and her lip was bleeding.

Hermione put Riley down and went to Ginny. She embraced her in a hug, expecting to be fully rejected. But surprisingly, Ginny hugged her back. Riley came up behind Hermione and pulled at the leg of her pants. "Mummy? Why is she crying, mummy? What's wrong?"

Everyone in the room turned to Riley who was standing in what could be the spotlight, holding his blanket close to him. He was a child who was wanted dead before he was even alive, something so unfair for someone so innocent.

"How did they find us?" Hermione asked.

"How do you think Hermione?" Fred said. It was the first time she had ever heard one of the Weasley twins serious. It reminded her of all the horror. "They had Snape acting as a double agent, just like we thought he was a double agent for us. He got Dumbledore to them, just like he accidentally gave up the location to the headquarters. No one was prepared when they came barging through the front door. One minute I'm reminiscing about our little shop in Diagon Alley and the next thing you know curses are flying everywhere. Then, as expected, Malfoy ran off. We probably could have got a better foot in if he had been there to help, but Merlin knows where he had to be at the moment."

Hermione was silent. She sat in the corner, taking Riley in her arms when he came to her, pushing his way into her lap.

"What're we going to do?" Hermione asked, looking out at the boarded up window.

"The thing we know how to do," Ginny said. "We're going to go and get them back."

It was stupid to think that five people and a baby could rescue at least twenty POWs. Hermione leaned her head back against the wall and remembered the last time Draco had smiled. It was last night before they had fallen asleep. She pulled the ring out of her pocket and placed it on her finger. As of now, Hermione Granger was the fiancé of Draco Malfoy.

"Your smiles like a drug, I just can't seem to get enough of it." Draco had said brushing away her hair from her forehead just after he had proposed. Hermione remembered she couldn't help but smile then, thinking that maybe everything would take a turn for the better.

Hermione couldn't help but think that she might never smile ever again after all of this was done and over with.


	16. Everybody's Gone to War

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter series…. Or anything affiliated with HP….. Or anything else…..

Chapter Sixteen: Everybody's Gone to War

If love is a drug, I guess we're all sober,

If hope is a song, I guess it's all over,

How to have faith, when faith is a crime?

I don't want to die...

If God's on our side, then God is a joker,

Asleep on the job, his children fall over,

Running out through the door, and straight to the sky,

I don't want to die...

I've got a friend, he's a pure-bred killing machine,

I think he might be dead by Christmas…

It's in times of war that no one really thinks about the trivial things. The things that keep you sane and alive, like a human being that had a purpose before there was the threat that any day could be your last.

Outside it was like Walt Disney on Ecstasy. The birds and animals were having a free for all in what once had been the best garden in the whole of Surrey, or the best vegetable patch on the most beautiful piece of land in the countryside.

The muggles were calling them the Occupation, which at times helped Hermione deal with the fact that these people were capable of anything that involved anyone. The Death Eaters didn't care if you were the Queen of Sheba; to them, you were a nameless, no account with no reason to have ever been born. Basically, no one but them and the Dark Lord were pure enough the survive on this land for the rest of eternity, and it drove Hermione and the others up the wall to hear the muggles cries for help, but what could a rag tag team of four really do? There was a baby among them, and at least one was hurt so that left three. Not exactly the best argument for the ways to conquer the enemy.

Sometimes at night, Hermione would lie awake long after Fred, George, Ginny and Tonks had fallen asleep. She would stare at her son, their son, and his perfect blond head of hair and wonder how anyone so young and defenseless could be at the top of the Top Fifty of the Dark Lord's Most Wanted.

First, what was left of the Order stayed in that one room, praying that someone, anyone on our side would come back for them, rescue them from their dreadful prison. Towards the end of the second day, it was clear that they were forgotten, and like it or not, they would have to leave to find food and a better shelter.

Ginny was uncontrollable after what had happened to Harry and the rest of them. Fred and George gave up on her ever being happy again and moved on to more important things. Like food and shelter. Their once upon a time safe haven had become enemy territory what with the chants of Death Eaters in the streets and bombs exploding day and night. The climax of the war had finally come, and it appeared to Hermione that it would be here for the better part of eternity.

Then the unthinkable happened. It didn't happen like it does in the movies, where the hero rushes in after being held captive for the past two days with a bloody nose and maybe a broken leg saying he escaped because he knew what the enemy was really doing and he had to be here to save everyone with his heroic fighting skills. No, it happened through the more realistic way. Fred and Tonks were taking a trip downstairs to the kitchens while Hermione, Riley and Ginny and George sat upstairs in the little room where they had been for the past two days.

George heard it first. Must be because his twin was downstairs and twins can do some pretty strange telepathic things in times of trouble. Or what they think might be trouble.

Well, at first it was all of them sitting down on the floor, Hermione drifting off to sleep with Ginny's head on her shoulder when there was a loud crash from the bottom of the stairs. Hermione and Ginny played it off as being Tonks who was the clumsiest human any one person had made. But George, George just stood up and looked at the door. Then he grabbed his wand and told Hermione and Ginny to get up. Both women stood, one grasping her wand in her hand, the other taking her son in one arm and her wand in her other hand.

That's when it all happened.

The door to the bedroom flew open and at first the trio was so surprised that they didn't say anything or move. Then Riley yelled at the top of his voice in incoherent baby talk. Hermione placed him on the ground where he promptly ran over to the man and wrapped his arms around his legs.

Hermione's hands went to her mouth, covering her lips as tears streamed out of the corners of her eyes and down her cheeks. Fred and Tonks came back into the room with armloads of food. When they saw who was in the room now though, the food became a part of the floor, toppling from their hands and shirt bottoms scattering across the dusty wooden floorboards.

"How?" Hermione said, coming closer. She looked deep into his eyes which were dilating rapidly. She reached out to touch his face when suddenly he collapsed on the floor, his legs giving out underneath his weight. Riley flew awkwardly with him but thought that it was a game. He stood and walked up to the man laughing and hitting him playfully. Ginny rushed forward and took the child as Hermione fell to her knees beside him, trying to pull him away from the door.

"Help me! Please, someone, help me!"

George rushed forward, taking the man's other arm and helping Hermione to pull him over to a corner where there were some pillows.

With some difficulty Hermione placed a pillow under his head in what looked like a comfortable way and covered him with one of the sad looking blankets they had in the room. Ginny tried to keep Riley entertained while Hermione rushed around, finding some water and pouring it in the only thing available. An old bowl that had been sitting on a table with some petrified fruit in it.

Returning to his side, Hermione placed the bowl beside him and tore a piece of cloth from the blanket covering him. She wet the cloth and placed it on his forehead while Fred and Tonks rushed around trying to pick up all the food and Ginny and George attempted to keep Riley happy and away from the two adults.

Three days later the man opened his eyes. He blinked a bit and looked around the old musty room without moving his head. He could see some people sitting around on the other side of the room, talking quietly amongst themselves. He studied them without moving his head for he didn't want them to know he was awake. He had no idea where he was or how he had gotten here. The last that he had of conscious memory was of waking up with the Death Eaters and now he was waking up here. It didn't make any sense.

He studied them like a person of scientific knowledge would study a Petri dish. One had the bushiest hair he had ever laid eyes on. It stuck out from her head like an afro, making her head appear ten times larger than it already was. Three of them had red hair, thin and poorly dressed he was sad to acknowledge. The other was rapidly changing hair colors and facial expressions, while cooing at a baby that might he add had the same hair color as himself. Not that he really knew who he was anymore…

"Oh, you're awake." The bushy haired woman/banshee said, coming closer. The man sat up a bit and moved away from her as best he could. She continued to come closer however and threw her arms around his neck, suffocating the poor guy. "Oh, Draco I thought you'd never wake up."

Hermione felt incredibly stupid for sounding so stupid, but what else could she say? It was the gods' honest truth.

"What did you call me?" "Draco" said.

Everyone in the room paused, well except for Riley who kept on playing with Tonks.

"I called you Draco. That's who you are. Don't you remember?" Hermione asked.

"I don't know, I can't remember." Draco's eyebrows drew together and created a worried expression on his handsome features. "The last thing I remember was all these people, Death Eaters, torturing others. I had just woken up from something and there was the scariest looking man I'd ever seen in my life. He called himself the Dark Lord and said that I was one of his followers who had fallen astray and that I would pay dearly for it like my father…that's the last thing I remember… well I remember trying to escape. You have no idea how weird those people were."

Hermione exchanged a look with the others in the room who were acting like Draco were the pinnacle of all things crazy and deranged.

"Do you remember me?" Hermione whispered. Her eyes were welling up with tears as her new fears were confirmed.

Draco looked into her eyes. They were amber and gold, the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen.

"No, I don't know you." Draco whispered back and Hermione fainted.

"How's it that you thought to come here and knew how to get into the house if you don't remember anything about yourself or your family for that matter?" George asked.

After Hermione had fainted, Draco had been kicked off of his "bed" and Hermione had been placed there instead.

Making himself comfortable in the corner while a little kid who was drooling while staring at him, Draco looked at the girl they called Hermione and wondered why she had fainted over something as easy as a question. That's when he noticed the ring. Looking at his own hand, he noticed the ring that had been on his pinky was indeed the ring on her ring finger and by the looks of it, it had gotten there through the right and proper way. Now if only he could remember who he was, who she was and why this kid was infatuated with him.

"That's your son." The crazy lady said who kept changing her appearance. Draco gave her a yeah right look and said, "Whatever." But there was really no denying it. The kid did have his features, not to forget his hair.

The wild banshee woman finally opened her eyes. She placed her hand to her head and complained about the horrible headache she had and how she hoped that whatever was happening was just some nightmare because Draco was still looking at all of them funny.

To Draco, who had indeed learned and believed that he truly was Draco Malfoy; it seemed that this woman was someone who with a bath and maybe a new head of hair would be someone that he wouldn't mind marrying. But, it's hard for him to remember these things when you're in the middle of a crisis involving yourself and about the whole world.

"You never answered my question." George said. Draco turned and looked at him and said, "What?"

"How is it that while you have no idea who the bloody hell you are and why you're the way you are, that you can find our house and get into it?" George asked reaching over and slapping the back of Draco's head. Draco reached for his hand but George was too quick for him.

"I had help you bastard."

"From who?" Ginny asked.

Draco looked at all the people in the room, taking in their wands withdrawn and pointed at him and decided that now might not be the time to provoke them. The only person who didn't appear murderous was banshee woman who was still lying on the ground only now she was accompanied by the kid.

"I don't know his name."

"Bullocks!"

"It's the truth!" Draco said, yelling it at Fred, or at least who he though was Fred. "The least I can do is describe him to you."

"Well, get on with it." Ginny said impatiently.

"He was tall and thin. Looked to be about seventeen, eighteen years old. Said that he was doing it for an old friend who had lied to him even though she could've trusted him." At this point, Hermione looked up and away from the group. "He had dark brown hair and light eyes, can't remember what color. He had on some worn cloak that he told me to give to the banshee woman over there. Oi! You, take this!"

"She has a name, it's Hermione."

"Fine, Hermione, take this!" Draco said, wadding up the cloak and tossing it to Hermione. It landed beside her, sending dust particles into the air. Hermione sent a look out across the room to Draco and took the cloak with a sigh.

It was wool, dirty and muddy with a hood at the back. Hermione opened the material and held it up so she could look at the front. Her eyes scanned the front and settled on a patch on the upper left breast. It was a raven, enclosed around a purple banner with a single capitalized 'H' behind it. Hermione's eyebrows came together as she realized who it was.

There was a sudden movement from one of the pockets, and Hermione against her better judgment reached in and took it out. The thing hissed and struck out at her as she pulled it from the pocket. Hermione dropped it with a screech as the snake pulled itself up like a cobra and opened its mouth, its tongue darting in and out tasting at the air.

Silently, the snake slithered closer to Hermione who remained still. It opened its mouth near to her left forearm and burst into smoke. The smoke permeated the room before it escaped through the only window and outside. Hermione stood and tore off one of the boards. She peered through the curtains and up into the darkening sky. The smoke had gathered into the form of a skull with a snake protruding its open mouth. Then it burst into color, illuminating the streets below it and all the Death Eaters began to chant louder and louder. They ran at a neighboring house and broke in through the windows.

Letting the curtain drop, Hermione turned back to the group and said, "I know who it is. It's Isaac Law, he was a seventh year at Hogwarts this year and we sort of had a relationship…" Draco looked livid after he heard this though he couldn't think of any good reason to be, other than it appeared that this thing was engaged to him and since he was beginning to remember things, he remembered that a Malfoy fiancé never talks about the past relationships until after they are married.

"I think he might be a Death Eater. We need to leave right now, they know where we are."

Hermione turned back to the window as everyone in the room began to panic.

It was the start to a glorious war…


	17. I Will Remember You

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter stuff!

Chapter Seventeen: I Will Remember You

I'm so tired but I can't sleep  
Standin' on the edge of something much too deep  
It's funny how we feel so much but we cannot say a word  
We are screaming inside, but we can't be heard

I'm so afraid to love you, but more afraid to loose  
Clinging to a past that doesn't let me choose  
Once there was a darkness, deep and endless night  
You gave me everything you had, oh you gave me light

And I will remember you  
Will you remember me?  
Don't let your life pass you by  
Weep not for the memories

The night air was heavy and thick with anticipation as the remaining people of the Order donned black cloaks and set off through a back door of the Black Manor and off into the darkness. Hermione had placed a silencing charm on Riley just for safe keeping and tied a sling across her where she placed him.

As they neared the fence, Hermione and the others paused. Looking down at Riley, Hermione took her wand and placed it on his forehead. She whispered a spell that she swore she would only use in the worst of times. Immediately the child's eyes drooped and closed his breathing relaxing into a steady pattern.

"I'm not too sure I like the fact of you putting spells on my kid," Draco said to Hermione quietly. Hermione turned to Draco and gave him a horrible look.

"Well, when you carry him around for nine months inside you all alone and then raise him yourself, you can come back and tell me what you think might be best for him, until then, I'm the one that decides."

Draco raised his hands in an "I surrender" type of way and said, "I just think that maybe I should have a say in what happens to my kid too."

"Firstly, he has a name, not 'kid'. Second, when you really truly care you'll have your memory back and actually know what his middle name is. You don't know anything about him. You don't know anything about me. You don't have a say in anything right now." Hermione said pulling her cloak tightly around her shoulders. Draco didn't say anything. He turned away and made sure that his florescent blond hair was out of the moon light so it wouldn't give them away.

"Why do you act like this?"

"Like what?"

Draco pursed his lips searching for the right answer. "So superior…" He extended his right hand before him as if to show what he meant and held his head just a little bit higher.

Hermione couldn't help it; she chuckled a bit before telling him that he was So Stupid and that He Should Learn To Grow Up, she Wasn't Superior Acting.

Ginny turned around to them and held a finger to her lips, an angry look on her face. "Sorry," Hermione whispered to her, immediately quieting down. Draco however had other plans and began to walk away from the group, towards where the Death Eaters were known to be.

"Malfoy! What are you doing? Get back over here!" Hermione said to him. Her voice was loud enough for him to hear, but not too loud as to attract attention. Malfoy turned at the sound of her voice and said, "Leave, me alone, Mudblood. We all have our own wars to fight, mine is obviously away from you. And if not, I'm making it away from you."

He continued on, mumbling under his breath and slipping into the shadows farther and farther from the remaining Order members. Hermione had to restrain herself from screaming out after him. Her heart beat wildly against her ribs, yelling to her brain to force her to run after him, put him in the full body binding curse and make him come with her. But things can't always be the way we want them to be.

Fred and George turned away from Hermione and said quietly that they should keep going incase Malfoy was out to give them up.

Hermione swallowed, her throat was sore and dry. She looked down at her son who was sleeping peacefully in the sling and suddenly she knew what she had to do. Taking Ginny's hand, she pulled her away towards a shadowy area and told her the plan. At first, Ginny rebelled, saying it was Stupid and Insane, Anything Could Happen, And You'll Blame Yourself For It. Hermione refused to back down. She couldn't care for him anymore like this in the middle of a war. And besides it would Only Be For A Little While.

When it became apparent that Hermione would never back down from her decision, Ginny nodded her head yes, that she would help, and took Riley as Hermione handed him to her.

With tears streaming down her cheeks, Hermione said a small spell that changed Riley's blond locks into a dark brown. His brown eyes were startling green and his skin was a shade darker. To be sure that she could find him no matter what, Hermione placed a protection symbol on his ankle. It was in the shape of a dragon spitting fire. It was small yet intricate and when the spell was finished, Hermione felt a little bit better of what she was doing. Hermione took Riley and placed him in the sling again, his body limp as he slept.

Quickly, Hermione told the others what she was doing and though they didn't agree, they knew that it was for the best. Hermione described the place she wanted to go. It was her aunt's cottage in the countryside, up near Wales. It overlooked the sea and was the best place she could think of hiding him. Hermione apparated with her son and was joined with the rest of her friends at the edge of a cliff.

The sea roared and crashed against the cliff's edge, spraying sea water up and at the group. The others searched the area for any danger and Hermione tore her eyes away from the beautiful scene and looked at her son. She placed the tip of her wand to his forehead and said a spell to wake him. He opened his eyes and yawned, looking up at his mother. Hermione let one tear fall where it fell to her son's smooth skin. Rolling down his forehead and stopping at his temple.

"Know that Mummy will always love you, and that she did it for the best. Things will be much worse for you if you stay with me in the middle of a war." Hermione said. Riley looked at her as she placed him on her hip and made for the house.

Cobbled stones led up to the weathered door, surrounded on either side by flowers of every shape and size and color imaginable. Hermione knocked loudly on the door and waited. Riley had his middle and ring fingers of his left hand in his mouth and Hermione tried to memorize everything about him.

A middle aged woman came to the door, wiping her hands on her apron. Some flour was dusted on her cheeks and Hermione was met with the familiar memories of when she was a child and everything was much easier. The woman smiled as tears filled her eyes and embraced Hermione in a tight hug.

"Aunt Izzie!" Hermione said into her aunt's shoulder. She pulled away and wiped the tears away. "I need to ask you a favor."

"Come in, child. And your friends too, come in, come in, please!" Aunt Izzie said.

Hermione stepped inside the house and looked around the old sitting room. It hadn't changed at all.

The members of the Order gathered in the entrance hall and stood rather awkwardly as Hermione explained quickly to her Aunt why they were there. She held Riley tightly in her arms, refusing to let him go until she had to.

"I need you to watch him for me until I come back. I will come back." Hermione said. Her aunt nodded her head yes that she would do as Hermione asked and Hermione sighed in relief.

Riley and Hermione looked deep into each other's eyes and shared their last mother-son moment they would have for a while. Hermione placed a kiss on Riley's forehead as new tears escaped her eyes. "I love you, I always will…"

And with that, Hermione placed Riley in her aunt's outstretched arms and turned away as Riley began to cry. He screamed and yelled out "Mummy!" but Hermione never turned back or wavered. The rest of the Order left behind Hermione and just as she was about to apparate, Hermione stopped. She went to the cliff's side and placed a spell on it that Riley couldn't fall over. She turned as a gust of wind blew through the area. Her aunt was trying to console Riley who was reaching out to Hermione with his tiny hands. Hermione cried as she raised her wand and turned to the left, thinking of the last place they had been in London.

As the countryside began to fade, Hermione could hear Riley's cries in her ears, echoing in her head. She willed them to stop as she landed in the alley. She fell to her knees almost immediately and sobbed. The others apparated some ways down the alleyway.

Hermione looked up as jets of green and red light flew over her head. Ginny, George and Fred, and Tonks all fell to the ground.

Hermione was about to turn as a wand was placed to the back of her head. A rough voice told her not to move as four others went to the remaining Order members and took their wands, placing them in their pockets. The voice told Hermione to stand, so she did rather shakily.

"Turn around…"

Turning slowly, Hermione thanked Merlin she didn't still have Riley with her. She closed her eyes and opened them as she was met with a cloaked man. He was tall and muscular, broad shouldered and lean.

Then, he began to take his hood and mask off and Hermione had to refrain from fainting. His blue eyes pierced into Hermione's as he said, "Remember me, sweetheart?"

Laughing, he pointed his wand to Hermione's heart and said, "Stupefy!" Hermione fell to the ground in a heap, her wand falling from her fingers and rolling across the alley floor into the shadows. One of the other masked men came and picked it up, placing it in his pocket.

"Take her to headquarters. And put her in my room…" The man said.

"But, Law, the Dark Lord said that she was supposed to be in _my_ rooms!" another said, the one who had taken her wand.

Isaac Law looked him in the eye and said, "My God, Malfoy, it's only for a little bit. I'm sure you'll be able to have your way with her too."

With that Isaac apparated to headquarters followed by the others.

Back in the alley, Malfoy looked down on Hermione and wondered why he had done this again. It wasn't what he wanted and he was faced with the thoughts that he could take her and leave, try to make it right to her and spend the rest of his life trying to be the man he had once been to her and their child. He bent over and took her in his arms. Her head fell back, her long brown hair spilling down to the dirty ground.

Still holding his wand in his hand, he apparated to the Dark Lord's headquarters all the while trying to not feel guilty, that this was the way things had to be. He placed her on his bed and locked his bedroom door. He looked at her as she slept and then unlocked the door again, left and locked it again to go and try to find Law.

He would make things right to her, first though, he had to get rid of Isaac Law, and then he would sort things out with Hermione, and try to sort out his past.

Draco Malfoy vowed to become something other than what he could remember of himself and he knew that Hermione would be the one to help him along the way. Somewhere deep within his heart was a longing that Draco couldn't quite place. But he knew it was for her and only her.


	18. Vindicated

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter!

Chapter Eighteen: Vindicated

Vindicated

I am selfish

I am wrong

I am right

I swear I'm right

Swear I knew it all along

And I am flawed, but I am cleaning up so well,

I am seeing in me now the things you swore you saw yourself.

So clear  
Like the diamond in your ring  
Cut to mirror your intention  
Oversized and overwhelmed  
The shine of which has caught my eye  
And rendered me  
So isolated, and so motivated  
I am certain now that I am

…

So turn  
up the corners of your lips  
Part them and feel my finger tips  
Trace the moment, fall forever

Defense is paper thin  
Just one touch and I'll be in  
Too deep now to ever swim against the current  
So let me slip away…

Opening her eyes, Hermione blinked at the harsh light, and quickly closed them again. She brought her hand up to her face and blocked out the light before opening her eyes and looking up at the ceiling. It was dark grey, spattered with stains and chunks missing in various places. Hermione noticed how soft the ground felt and then she realized that she was in a bed, from the looks of it a nice bed.

Looking up, she saw him, sitting in a chair, his head in his hands, and a defeated look about him. His blond hair wasn't glowing or shinning in the light. It looked dull and limp, much like how Hermione felt.

Hermione studied where she was, looking at the pictures scattered before him on the floor and the trunk that was open and spilling clothes onto the hardwood floorboards underneath it. She took in that her wand was sitting on the table next to her on the bed and also that there seemed to be nothing that would harm her. But, having been trained by the phobic Mad-Eye, Hermione was always on guard about something out of the ordinary happening.

The pictures Hermione noticed were muggle ones mixed with wizarding ones. She couldn't make out the people in them, but she knew that whoever they were, they were of great importance to the man in front of her.

It took Hermione a minute to take in that he was in fact awake, and that the reason he was looking down at the floor was because he was distraught. His shoulders heaved, but she knew he didn't cry. People in his family don't cry, they get over it and let it go as it happens. They deal with it.

Silently, she stood out of the bed and walked across the wooden floor. It creaked and groaned as though it weren't used to a person stepping on it, but he never moved.

It was as though he knew what she was doing, even before she herself could think of it.

Encouraged, Hermione knelt in front of him and reached out to him, touching his cheek. Neither of them spoke, just looked at each other.

"I remember…" he whispered, sadly almost.

"I know…" Hermione said back, even though she really hadn't known at all. It was just the one thing she could think of to say that wouldn't make him hurt if possible worse.

Hermione backed away a bit, rocking on her feet, taking a few of the photographs in her hands. There were some of people she didn't know, but yet they meant everything to her. There were pictures of herself and of her son, their son. There were pictures of the Order and pictures of when they were happy just to be alive in that house. And there were pictures from their past, their years at school and all the things that they had gone to together, not through choice, but force.

Taking the photos, she arranged them in a neat stack and put them on the desk next to him. She moved back closer to him and just did what she felt. She stopped thinking for a moment, stopped thinking that maybe everything he was doing was just a big scam to get back at her, for deep down in her heart, she knew it wasn't. For the first time, she let him show her who he was, and not through words, but through the only way he knew how. And it took time for them both to understand how to relate to the other.

It might have been forever, just sitting there, staring into each others eyes. Time could have passed by so quickly that they were old and wrinkled people, but they never noticed. It wasn't something they cared to know.

At first he was hesitant about her being affectionate in her own way and just touching his face. But after he realized that she wasn't going anywhere, he relented, closing his eyes as she ran her fingertips over his eyes and nose, grazing his lips and tracing the curves of his jaw. She paused at his lips, marveling at their smoothness and remembering to how she would do this at night when he had fallen asleep. His bottom lip was slightly bigger than his top, giving him a pouty look that suited him fine, just fine.

Taking his hands in her own, she pulled him to a standing position. He was taller than her by at least eight inches. She grasped his hands and led him over to the bed where they both sat on the edge and Hermione waited for him to talk. When he remained quiet however, she turned to him and said, "Draco, I love you. I always have… I don't know what you know anymore, and sometimes I don't think that I know what I thought I knew anymore." Here, she paused, searching for the right words. "See, I guess I thought that we would be together forever, but I've found that the truth about forever is that forever is happening right here and now. Forever is who we are and what we're doing. Forever is a part of what's been happening to us. I don't know if you love me anymore or if you want to be with me… but I'm willing to wait for you… I'll wait forever if I have to, just so that I can be with you the way things once were…"

He didn't say anything for the longest time. He just looked into her eyes. Finally he looked down at the ring on her finger and said, "I know who I am and what has happened. At least I think that I know everything that's happened in my past. But, Hermione, I've been unfair to you. I've hurt you in numerous ways and I've never really been one you could rely on for stability. I want to prove to you who I am; I want you to know that I'm not just some selfish jerk who only thinks for himself. And I want you to help me along the way. I don't remember a lot of things, but maybe I just need you to help me figure them out. I need to vindicate myself…"

Hermione looked deep into his silvery grey eyes and then kissed the back of his hand. She opened her mouth and said, "OK," the two letters she had known she would say even if it had been something far worse. Draco smiled at her then and leaned towards her shyly. He placed a soft kiss on her lips and touched her cheek. He whispered to her what he wanted her to do, and she nodded her head as he leaned back and placed his hands under his head, lying back on the soft bed. She lay next to him, her arms at her sides as they both stared at the ceiling. Hermione marveled at how they had come so far and yet, they had gone back to the place they had started from so many times.

She loved him and yet she never really knew who he was. He had changed so many times in their relationship, if one could call it that, and left Hermione dazed and confused bumping and sliding along behind him, wondering how on Earth a girl was supposed to keep up.

"Just listen."

Maybe it was the way she could listen to everything he said and yet nothing, not even the bad was held against him. She filled him in on everything that he had somehow passed up and she even offered to make a pensive of all their memories that they shared.

It seemed so surreal that this could happen to someone who was supposed to live a life of evil that maybe the way things changed and intermingled was the way that Fate had it planned out all along. Draco had never realized before how much he could _feel_ for someone, just by saying a few words.

He told her everything. He told her of how he had never really wanted to be a Death Eater, but things weren't always for him to choose. How he had always wanted to be the one who came home to the glory and actually felt that he had done the right thing. He told her that he remembered killing a child, no older than that of their own child. He explained in detail the look of terror on the child's face as he silently prayed that maybe judgment could come lightly. And he detailed the way it had happened, a simple curse, a flash of light and then that was it. Life was cut off so short just because of something that one person had thought impure.

Before Voldemort there had been a time when the Malfoy family believed that it was okay to associate with muggles. Draco told Hermione of his late uncle who was exiled from the family simply because he loved a muggle born witch. He was punished, his love was killed and it was done before his very eyes. He told Hermione that it was a bad decision that had tossed away the lives of so many innocent people.

You see, Narcissa Malfoy was someone of great influence. She could silence an entire room of people with a simple raise of her hand. And she had passed this trait on to her son.

Draco Malfoy was someone who had been raised in a rich family, with everything he could ever want, but it was a life that was always chosen for him. At first, he couldn't recognize the signs. That one day he would have to follow a mad man because his father had signed him over to the Dark Lord before he was even born.

Hermione listened intently. She did not try to hide her surprise as he told her about his older brother.

"He was a traitor, or at least to my father he was a traitor. My father loved the Dark Lord more than he did his own family. He loved my mother, but it was a lustful love, something that had to happen because it was written in the 'rules of the Malfoy family book', he had to produce heirs. But my brother refused to ever follow another man. He was a free spirit, someone who had all the ideas and knew what he wanted to do with his life. Well, to be a good Death Eater, all that must be in your future is simply the Dark Lord. When my father found out that he was sneaking out and meeting a muggle-born, he went crazy. He destroyed my brothers things, the portraits of him in the hall lined with the people of our family. He took him out of his will and erased his name from the Malfoy Family tree. It's a tapestry, much like the one in Black Manor. When my brother returned home that night though, my father was waiting for him. I remember even though I was nine at the time, the look on all of their faces. My mother was kneeling before my father, begging him not to take her son from him, to let him go. But my father refused, it had already been decided. Then the weirdest thing happened," Draco paused, his eyes shut then he opened them. They were so full of emotion, yet they were so empty, eyes that had seen too much death and destruction to ever really be whole again. "My brother looked up at me where I sat, behind to banister on the landing, watching. His eyes looked deep into mine and I had the sudden feeling that maybe everything could be okay. That maybe this was supposed to happen, even though it had happened in such a horrible way. My father killed him then, my mother screamed and I sat there. I've never cried for him, I know he wouldn't want me to… My mother had a service for him even though it was forbidden by my father and we buried him in a corner of our family plot. She said it was the best place for him to rest…"

Hermione looked at the side of Draco's face. She touched his cheek and said that she was sorry, she meant it and both of them knew it.

Sitting up, Draco said that was enough for one day. It was already getting late and they both needed their rest, Hermione especially since Isaac was thoroughly pissed that she hadn't yet been to his rooms.

Together they climbed under the sheets and lay back on the pillows. She grasped his hand and held on tight. He turned to her and then he leaned in and kissed her when she looked at him. It was a sweet kiss, full of everything that could be between them, everything that they wanted to happen.

And then they slept… nothing could harm them whilst they were together, they knew that. And when tomorrow came, he would finish his story while she held his hand and listened intently so as not to miss a single word.

And tomorrow they both knew would be their day. Then they would come for her, they both knew it and they both knew that it couldn't be stopped.

Draco knew that she had forgiven him. She had helped him fill in the gaps of his past and now he knew what he had always wanted. He had vindicated himself, proven himself as something other than a monster. They kissed and they loved, never worrying about what would happen, just as long as they had this moment together.

But for now they slept, knowing that tomorrow would be theirs… and it felt wonderful to sleep next to their true love, just holding each other and wishing that it could last forever. But it was like she had said; forever for them was right now. It was happening right before their very eyes and all he had to do was simply drink it in.


	19. I Will Follow You Into the Dark

Disclaimer: I do not own H.P. … why do we have to write these on every page?

Chapter Nineteen: I Will Follow You Into The Dark

Love of mine some day you will die  
But I'll be close behind  
I'll follow you into the dark

No blinding light or tunnels to gates of white  
Just our hands clasped so tight  
Waiting for the hint of a spark  
If Heaven and Hell decide  
That they both are satisfied  
Illuminate the NOs on their vacancy signs

If there's no one beside you  
When your soul embarks  
Then I'll follow you into the dark

Draco walked down the dim corridor to a huge hall where all the Death Eaters met and discussed everything that would be happening. He knew that this was the place to find Isaac. He rubbed his temple and tried to think of something other than of him and Hermione that morning. They had made love for the first time, and Draco knew he loved her, cared for her deeply.

Pushing open the heavy wooden doors, Draco was met with the two circles of Death Eaters, only used when the Dark Lord was in a bad mood and had no patience of looking around the room for his followers. In the circle it was always easiest to find who he was looking for. Draco pulled the hood of his cloak up over his head and was about to step into the inner circle when a man stepped in front of him. He removed his mask and revealed himself as Isaac.

"The Dark Lord wants you front and center, Malfoy, just like you always want it to be." He sneered, showing his perfectly white, straight teeth.

Draco looked around at his "brothers and sisters" and realized he was alone in this horror. He moved away from his spot and went to the center of the circle as he was directed and the Dark Lord suddenly appeared before him.

"I'm not happy with you Malfoy, not happy at all." The Dark Lord said, circling Malfoy as if he were studying a piece of art in a museum. "Can you tell me why?"

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Draco said as steady as he could, "No, sir. I can't tell you."

"Shame." The Dark Lord said as the two doors Draco had just come through were thrown open. "She's such a beautiful thing… for a mudblood."

His breath caught in his throat as Hermione was thrown into the inner circles depth. The man closest to her kicked her hard in the stomach and Draco wanted to curse him, but instead he stood where he was and watched it. He let these things happen to her just like he had let things happen to his mother and brother.

Hermione rolled, clutching her stomach, but no tears fell from her eyes. She squeezed them shut, a pained look on her graceful features. Isaac Law stepped forward and grasped a handful of her silky hair, pulling her up into a squatting position. Hermione reached up and clasped Isaac's fists, as if to release some of the pressure on her scalp.

Voldemort laughed and told Draco to withdraw his wand. At first Draco was stupefied, he didn't react to anything, just stared deeply into Hermione's caramel eyes and wished he had taken her away from here when he'd had the chance. But it was too late.

Withdrawing his wand, Draco took a stance, without realizing it and kept his arms loosely at his sides. The Dark Lord came up to Hermione and touched her face. He said something to her that only she could hear. Her eyes widened and she pushed herself against the front of Isaac's legs causing him to loose his balance and fall over into another Death Eater. Isaac curse loudly and shoved Hermione off of his legs. He stood and towered over her, giving her a swift kick in the abdomen. Draco fought to keep his composure.

"Now, my young Malfoy, there is a way for you to redeem yourself," Voldemort said, coming closer to Draco and whispering in his ear. "All you have to do is kill the mudblood."

Draco bit his tongue and fought to keep his composure and not kill Voldemort right then and there.

"Look at her, she's useless, pathetic. A worthless thing brought into this world by useless people. She doesn't deserve to live, Draco. Kill her, it'll only take a second and then everything will be done and over with. One little wave of the wand, a few words and then it'll all be over and we can move on to more important things." Voldemort said as he whispered into Draco's ear, poisoning his thoughts. Draco stared at Hermione as she struggled against Isaac, her eyes wandering around the room, looking for a way to escape.

Hermione looked at Draco who was staring at her. His eyes were stone grey, the way they had looked when he had raped her all those months ago. She knew he was lost to the effects of Voldemort and suddenly, Hermione had no will to leave. She wanted to stay and try to make him how he was again, to make him the Draco Malfoy she had loved only this morning.

"Do it, Draco, or your son and the rest of your family will die."

Draco raised his wand, his arm shaking. He knew that what he was doing was irreplaceable, nothing could change this. He let a tear fall as he neared Hermione. He grabbed her hair from Isaac and pulled her to her feet. She beat his chest as he pulled her away from the other two men.

Releasing her hair, Draco looked deeply into Hermione's eyes and tried to tell her how sorry he was for all of this, and how he wished things could have been different. She softened it appeared and dropped her shoulders.

"I believed in you Draco Malfoy," she whispered, her caramel eyes boring into his silvery ones.

He couldn't say anything it would just make everything harder. The Dark Lord was growing impatient. He withdrew his own wand just as Draco pushed Hermione out of the way and yelled, "Avada Kedavra!"

Isaac Law was pushed before the Dark Lord just as the jet of green light was reaching Voldemort. He raised his own wand and before anyone had time to react, threw the killing curse at Hermione. It hit her straight at the heart and Draco had only enough time to grasp her arms to keep her from falling.

Hermione's eyes were dark and cloudy and Draco felt the tears start to fall down his cheeks.

The Death Eaters around them started to shift uncomfortably as the Dark Lord came closer to Draco and taking his wand stabbed the young man in the back.

Draco opened his mouth in a silent 'o' his eyes wide from the immense pain. The Dark Lord twisted his wand further into Draco's insides and was about to pull it out again when a voice yelled out, "Avada Kedavra and Draco fell forward over Hermione in a dead faint.

---------------------------------------

Draco opened his eyes and shut them again quickly. The whiteness around him was blinding. He sat up a little bit and opened his eyes again.

Harry Potter was sitting before him. Hermione was no where to be seen.

Both men were quiet as medinurses bustled here and there.

Around Draco's stomach was a bandage that ached whenever he moved his torso.

"Where is she, Potter?" Malfoy asked. Harry looked away and twiddled his thumbs.

"She's gone Draco. Her funeral was yesterday. After you passed out the Order came in, I killed Voldemort and I guess you can say the world is safe again. All the Death Eater's are in Azkaban, except you. She somehow proved your innocence beyond the grave and the ministry isn't going to do anything to you." Harry said standing up. He withdrew a envelope from his pocket and handed it to Draco. "This is from Hermione. It was found in her robes and I made sure that no one had read it. As soon as you're cleared here, you're free to go."

Harry dropped the letter on Draco's bed and turned to leave the ward.

"Potter!" Draco called. Harry turned at the sound of his name. "Thanks…"

Harry shook his head and continued out the door.

Taking the letter, Draco tore open the thick envelope and pulled out a sheaf of parchment that smelled a little like lavender. He unfolded it as a sense of dread filled him.

_Dear Draco,_

_I know that the only way you'll ever read this is if I am dead. I want you to know that I love you so much! You are the best thing that happened to me and I thank you for teaching me that not everyone is horrible or as they appear to be._

_First there is the matter of Riley. He's hidden at my aunt's house in Wales. It is a little cottage next to the sea. It was my favorite escape when I was younger. Please raise Riley knowing about me. Don't try to hide who I am for I want him to know about me and I want him to know that I loved him very much, much more than anything else. Riley has a spell on him to change his appearance so when you find him, he'll have dark hair and green eyes._

_Draco, please go on and live for me. Experience all those things in life that I can't now. I love you, please don't forget that._

_Love always and forever,_

_Hermione_

----------------------

Draco left the hospital three days later, still sore but otherwise okay. He apparated to a little village in Wales and asked about Hermione's aunt. A portly man who owned a bakery pointed him in the right direction. Draco walked for about a mile until he got to a little house with an immense garden outside. A middle aged woman was chasing a little boy with dark hair and tanned skin.

He approached them cautiously, so as not to spook the woman.

At the sound of his footsteps, the woman stopped and stood straight. The little boy turned to see why his aunt had ceased chasing him to see Draco. His little face broke into a wide smile as he yelled and ran at Draco who bent down to scoop him into his arms. Draco twirled the child in the air and laughed as the child smiled and screamed with delight.

"Who are you?" the woman asked, coming closer.

"My name is Draco Malfoy, this is my son. I guess Hermione never told you…?"

At the woman's shake of the head he put Riley down and took a step forward. "I need to tell you that Hermione hasn't made it. She's gone…" Draco said, sadly, not really even believing the words as they came out of his mouth. The woman placed her hand to her mouth as tears fell down her face. She nodded her head and Riley stepped up and wrapped his arms around her legs, not knowing what was happening.

"I need to go though," Draco said. "I'm terribly sorry to leave you like this…"

"No, it's alright, I understand." The woman went inside and came back out with a little suitcase. "Take care of him, Mr. Malfoy."

Draco nodded his head and went to take Riley who had begun to cry and say that he didn't want to go. Against the child's will, Draco picked him up and said goodbye to Hermione's aunt. He apparated to his manor to drop off Riley's suitcase before they both continued on to the cemetery.

Riley clutched to Draco, hiccupping. "Daddy, why are we here?"

Not having the heart to lie to his son, Draco said calmly, "We're here to say goodbye to mummy, Riley,"

"Why is mummy here?"

"Because, Riley, mummy died and is with the angels now."

The child scrunched his brow together and Draco continued on looking for Hermione's grave. It didn't take long for him to find it; the grass was much greener than any of the other grass around it, giving it away in an instant. He stopped before her tombstone which had an unturned angel carved of marble on the top. He knelt before the tomb and read her epitaph, tracing his fingers over each letter. Riley came over and pushed himself into Draco's lap. Father and son looked at the grave, one with remorse the other with confusion.

"Is this where mummy is?" Riley said pointing to the marker. Draco nodded his head yes.

"Did you know Riley that your mummy loved you very much, more than anything?" Draco asked, taking the child's hand and standing. Riley smiled and looked up at his father. Draco took his wand and pointed it at Riley's hair changing it back to blond and his eyes to brown. "She loved you more than anything else in the world."

Replacing his wand Draco picked Riley up and began to leave the cemetery, telling Riley all the things about his mother that described her best. At the edge of the cemetery, Draco paused and took his wand, he pointed it at Hermione's grave and a bouquet of lilys and tulips mixed with white roses appeared before her grave.

"She was so beautiful…" Draco continued as they continued on. The sun was setting casting the earth in a rainfall of reds and gold's and father and son kept walking on in the distance. Their lives were controlled by time, but for now, father was content with making a forever for his son. And that was how it ended, with a loving forever, just like Hermione would have wanted it…


End file.
